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Out of all of the nucleoside triphosphates what makes ATP the most used? Is it its structure? The amount of energy it contains? Why is GTP not used as much? What is the deal with the other nucleoside triphosphates (dATP, dGTP, dTTP, dCTP, UTP, CTP)? Are there any artificial NTPs that can substitute for ATP? (like something that could cure Cyanide poisoning or a disease/illness that somehow de-functionalizes the Electron Transport Chain)

Alex Stacks
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    This was a question I too asked, during intro biochem. I still don't know the answer. I'm not sure if there's a satisfactory one beyond "evolutionary contingency". – tel Jan 19 '15 at 19:31
  • I know GTP is often involved in signaling pathways such as in G Proteins. – user137 Jan 19 '15 at 19:37
  • @tel do you think there is a way to find this out? an expirement or something? – Alex Stacks Jan 19 '15 at 19:44
  • Apparently some GTP is involved in energy transfer. Following those references might be helpful. – user137 Jan 19 '15 at 19:47
  • @user137 Yes, so maybe the best version of the question is "Why ATP and not GTP?", since the two molecules are so similar in terms of their chemistry and biological role. – tel Jan 19 '15 at 20:18
  • In terms of experiments, you could find an organism (probably some extremophile archaea or something) that produces mostly GTP during glycolysis in place of ATP. Alternatively, you could synthetically alter one of the ATP producing enzymes so that they instead produce GTP. Either one would provide strong evidence that the preference for using ATP in metabolism is mostly a matter of coincidence. – tel Jan 19 '15 at 20:25
  • I think that it would be more questionable if every nucleotide was used equally. – canadianer Jan 19 '15 at 20:55
  • It would require multiple and/or multispecific enzymes. – canadianer Jan 19 '15 at 21:03
  • I believe the purines are more reactive, and ATP has a number of factors that make it's hydrolysis much quicker than GTP. Lots of GTP-mediated mechanisms seem to be time-dependent. The hydrolysis energies should be equal. – CKM Jan 19 '15 at 23:57
  • Cyanide poisoning is because of inhibition of Cyt-c oxidase. Nothing to actually do with ATP. Other complexes are not affected. – WYSIWYG Jan 20 '15 at 04:56
  • @tel that's a great idea. I am only a high school student, and I do not know much about running my own experiments. So, any suggestions on where to get materials for it? and by the way what equipment do I need? I need to know, because the high school doesn't have a lot of equipment – Alex Stacks Jan 22 '15 at 16:07
  • @WYSIWYG I thought cyanide disabled the electron transport chain. Am I wrong? – Alex Stacks Jan 22 '15 at 16:08
  • @Kendall Where did you find out this piece of information? can you point me in a direction that would allow me to learn more? – Alex Stacks Jan 22 '15 at 16:09
  • @AlexStacks it does; but at a particular step. There are some electron transport chains that are insensitive to cyanide – WYSIWYG Jan 23 '15 at 05:00

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