Progress?

[jimmylegs]

i love how all these things work but have not looked at the processes in close detail for quite a while. used to have a bunch of links posted to cool animations.. somewhere?? hehe. my key thing is having enough Mg around to support as many of those reactions as needed. plus everything else it has to get done along similar veins (no pun intended but i'll take it ha)

[NHE]

The magnesium is important with ATP.
The ATP has four oxygens with a negative charge. The Mg reduces that from -4 to -2 so the ATP becomes less reactive.

The formal version of the reaction is MgATP+H2O → MgADP+Pi+H (someone tell me how to superscript please!!)

From the Forums FAQ topic... http://www.thisisms.com/forum/site-supp ... ml#p204414

MgATP+H₂O → MgADP+P_i+H⁺

The reaction is unidirectional but ATP and ADP are not in chemical equilibrium or there would be no reaction. Binding to Magnesium helps keep the system far from equilibrium and that lets energy keep being released.

At chemical equilibrium, there is no NET reaction. However, there is still a reaction occurring. The reaction proceeds forwards and backwards at the same rate. This has been demonstrated using radioisotopes.

[Scott1]

Hi NHE,

I'm actually a bit thick. What does ^text mean?

I take your point that there is still a reaction but it will all have turned into ADP (esp in the presence of H2O) so it's not much use.

Regards,

[Scott1]

Ha!

Just looked at it! Now I understand.