londons_explore 7 hours ago

What is the typical lifespan of ATP within a cell?

Are we talking milliseconds or minutes?

  • eitally 6 hours ago

    From an exercise physiology point of view, it's generally accepted that ATP-CP powered motility is possible for only about 10 seconds (that is to say, you only store enough ATP for about 10 seconds of high intensity work -- sprinting, maximal weight lifting, etc). After that, other energy systems become dominant ... both of which create ATP but depend on either glycolysis (anaerobic) or oxidative phosphorylation (aerobic) for the process/conversion.

  • pfdietz 6 hours ago

    According to the wikipedia page on ATP, the average ATP concentration in eukaryotic cells is 1 to 10 micromols per gram.

    According to https://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/bionumber.aspx?s=n&v=2&id... a single mammalian cell has a mass of 3 to 4 nanograms.

    Google AI tells me the average rate of ATP formation in a mammalian cell is around 10 million molecules per second.

    The ratio here ranges from 3 to 40 minutes.

    I imagine it varies greatly depending on cell type.

coolcase 9 hours ago

Wouldn't mind some bird mitochondria!

  • b800h 8 hours ago

    Seriously, what would happen if we swapped out human mitochondria from a zygote for bird mitochondria?

    • jyounker 8 hours ago

      I don't think you'd get the same sort of effects, because a huge part of the mitochondrial regulation and function is carried out by genes and gene products from outside the mitochondria.

      It would be an interesting experiment though. I'd expect that they might not live, or that the cell would function sub-optimally, but who knows, maybe the cellular machinery is highly conserved.

      • dejj 7 hours ago

        Yes. Afaik from Nick Lane’s “Oxygen” the Cytochrome Oxidase made from the mitochondrial DNA have to match the Cytochrome C made from nuclear DNA. Even slight mismatch seems to lower mitochondrial performance and is a problem why heteroplasmy (mixing of mitochondria from father and mother) seems to be selected-out.

        • treyd 4 hours ago

          Well what if you also swapped out those genes?

    • dghughes 4 hours ago

      You'd get Kids in the Hall Chicken Lady.

  • mckirk 4 hours ago

    And some whale blood!

euj 4 days ago

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