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The structure ofadenosine triphosphate, or ATP, consists of the nucleoside adenosine (blue square in the figure below) and a tail of three phosphate groups (red circles in the figure below). The negative charges in the phosphate groups repel each other and need energy to bond them together. When these high-energy bonds are broken, this energy is released throughATP hydrolysis.

A digram showing the chemical structure of ATP, which consists of an adenosine, a ribose, and a phosphate tail. The adensosine group consists of a 6 sided ring composed of carbon and nitrogen, which shares a side with a five sided ring that also consists of carbon and nitrogen. A single bond connects a nitrogen in adenosine to a carbon in the ribose group. The ribose group is a 5 sided sugar consisting of carbon and oxygen. A single bond connects the ribose group to a carbon, which shares a single bond with an oxygen atom in a phosphate group. Single bonds between oxygens in adjacent phosphate groups form a tail of 3 phosphate groups, with each phosphate group containing a central phosphorous atom, 3 single bonded oxygen atoms, and a double bonded oxygen atom.

ATP has an adenosine backbone with three phosphate groups attached. Energy is stored in the high-energy bonds between the phosphate groups.

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