What is "adenosine diphosphate"

n. (context biochemistry English) a nucleotide, the result of adenosine triphosphate losing a phosphate group in metabolism.

n. an ester of adenosine that is converted to ATP for energy storage [syn: ADP]

Adenosine diphosphate (ADP) (Adenosine pyrophosphate (APP)) is an important organic compound in metabolism and is essential to the flow of energy in living cells. A molecule of ADP consists of three important structural components: a sugar backbone attached to a molecule of adenine and two phosphate groups bonded to the 5 carbon atom of ribose. The carbon molecules that make up the ring structure of a sugar can be named in a way that more specifically designates the location of the phosphate and adenosine attachments: The sugar backbone of ADP is known as a pentose sugar and consists of five carbon molecules. The two phosphate groups of ADP are added in series to the 5’ carbon of the sugar backbone, while the adenosine molecule attaches to the 1’ carbon.

The two phosphates in ADP can be correlated with ATP and AMP. ATP consists of three phosphate groups attached in series to the 5’ carbon location, whereas ADP contains two phosphate groups attached to the 5’ position, and AMP contains only one phosphate group attached at the 5’ position. Energy transfer used by all living things is a result of dephosphorylation of ATP by enzymes known as ATPases. The cleavage of a phosphate group from ATP results in the coupling of energy to metabolic reactions and a by-product, a molecule of ADP. Being the "molecular unit of currency", ATP is continually being formed from lower-energy molecules of ADP and AMP. The biosynthesis of ATP is achieved throughout processes such as substrate-level phosphorylation, oxidative phosphorylation, and photophosphorylation, all of which facilitating the addition of a phosphate group to an ADP molecule.