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View submission: Does The Endoplasmic Reticulum Transport ATP?
/u/bioentropy makes some very good points, but I'd like to clear up a little misunderstanding on ATP namely:
Thus, a cell makes ATP as required; it isn't transported nor saved for later usage.
This is wrong.
The cell makes ATP constantly. The reason for this is because ATP is *not* some magic molecule that *stores* energy and gives it away. ATP is the energy molecule of choice for the cell only because the cell maintains the chemical reaction: ADP +Pi --> ATP extremely far away from its chemical equilibrium. The driving force for ATP to break down to ADP + Pi is extremely high in the cell. That is where the energy in ATP is *stored.*
When you think about it that way you can see that the cell can't make ATP only when it needs it. It has to constantly make ATP to maintain the concentration of ATP far from equilibrium.
A cell can drastically increase the rate that it makes ATP in response to an increase in ATP demand.
There's nothing here!