It’s what your Cells Really Need

December 06, 2017

Adenosine: Powers up your Cells

Is it possible to do a certain task without enough energy? Well obviously, the answer would be no. We all need an energy to perform our daily activities, and to keep us going throughout the day. Just like how we need energy, our cells needed some sort of motivation too! This motivation to keep your cells function is a chemical energy in the form of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP). And without this nucleoside called Adenosine, the whole energy currency of the cell will never be formed.

Adenosine is a molecule that basically looks like Adenine, only that it contains an additional sugar molecule we call ribose. Adenosine couples with three phosphate molecules connected together by high-energy bonds. Whenever a phosphate molecule breaks off, energy is lost form the entire ATP molecule and is consequently used up by cells in performing metabolic functions.

How does Adenosine look like in Chemistry?

Let’s Get Building!

Using your Student Molecular Set from Duluth Labs let’s create the Adenosine! You’ll need:

10 Carbon Atoms
5 Nitrogen Atoms
13 Hydrogen Atoms
4 Oxygen Atoms
13 Small connectors (compact small bonds for hydrogen)
15 Medium connectors (single covalent bonds)
8 Long connectors
Molecular Tool (for Disassembly)

Put aside all the atoms and connectors needed.

Let’s Start Building Our Pyrimidine Ring.

We will begin with Carbon 6 and will build this part of the molecule in a clockwise direction. Let’s start!

Steps:

1

1. First, get 1 carbon atom(Carbon 6), then attach a Nitrogen atom above it using 1 medium connector. Then, attach 2 hydrogen atoms on this nitrogen atom using 2 small connectors.
2

2. Using 2 long connectors, attach another nitrogen atom(Nitrogen 1) to Carbon 6.
3

3. Attach a carbon atom(Carbon 2)below Nitrogen 1 using amedium connector.Then place 1 hydrogen atom on Carbon 2 using a small connector.
4

4. Attach a nitrogen atom(Nitrogen 3)to Carbon 2 using 2 long connectors.
5

5. Get another carbon atom(Carbon 4) and attach this to Nitrogen 3 using 1 medium connector.
6

6. Attach 1 carbon atom (Carbon 5) above Carbon 4 using 2 long connectors.
7

7. Then, using a medium connector join Carbon 5 and Carbon 6 together.
8

Yay! We've just built our Pyrimidine Portion!

Note: Let’s now continue building the Imidazole portion.

Steps:

1

1. Get a nitrogen atom (Nitrogen 7) and attach thisto Carbon 5 of thePyrimidine Ringusing a medium connector.
2

2. Attach a carbon atom(Carbon 8) to the left of Nitrogen 7 using 2 long connectors. Then place 1 hydrogen atom on Carbon 8 with a small connector.
3

3. Grab another nitrogen atom(Nitrogen 9) and attach this below Carbon 8 using a medium connector.
4

4. Using 1 medium connector, join Nitrogen 9 and Carbon 4 of the Pyrimidine Ring together.
We now have our Purine molecule!

Finally, let’s build the Oxolane ring. This is what makes the sugar portion of our Adenosine molecule!

Steps:

1

1. Get an Oxygen atom (Oxygen 1),thenusing a medium connector attach a carbon atom (Carbon 1’) to this oxygen. Place 1 hydrogen atom on Carbon 1’ using a small connector.
2

2. Get another carbon atom (Carbon 2’)then attach this to Carbon 1’. Add a hydrogen atom to Carbon 2’ using a small connector
3

3. Get an Oxygenatom (Oxygen 2), then attach this to Carbon 2’ using a medium connector. Then, place a hydrogen atom on this oxygen using a small connector.
4

4. Attach one carbon atom (Carbon 3’) to Carbon 2’ using a medium connector. Likewise, attach a hydrogen atom to Carbon 3’ using a small connector
5

5. Get an Oxygenatom (Oxygen 3) then attach this to Carbon 3’ using a medium connector. Then, place a hydrogen atom on this oxygen using a small connector
6

6. Using a medium connector, attach a carbon atom (Carbon 4’) to Carbon 3’. Attach a hydrogen atom on Carbon 4’ using a small connector.
7

7. Using a medium connector attach Carbon 4’ to Oxygen 1.
8

8. Then, get another carbon atom (Carbon 5’) then attach this to Carbon 4’ using a medium connector. Place 2 hydrogen atoms on Carbon 5 using 2 small connectors.
9

9. Get an Oxygen atom(Oxygen 4),then attach this to Carbon 5’using a medium connector. Attach a hydrogen atom on this oxygen using a small connector.
10

10. Then finally, join Carbon 1' and Nitrogen 9 of imidazole using a medium connector.
We now have our Adenosine molecule!