My teacher posted a quizlet but she used these 2 different terms, so I’m a little confused. Is there any real difference between the two?
In: Biology
Say you eat some sugar. It goes in your bloodstream to your cells. Your cell then converts that sugar into energy. One of the way it does this is by turning some of the energy from the sugar molecule into NADH. That NADH goes to your mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell) and is used to generate ATP, which is the main energy molecule your cell uses. This can power a bunch of other things. So NADH is used for ATP production.
NADPH is a little bit different. It’s also made out of sugar. But instead of sending the energy down the path to make ATP, your cell forms NADPH instead. This NADPH can be used for building new things. For example, if your body wants to make a new fat or cholesterol molecule, it uses NADPH to help make it. Or say that there are some dangerous reactive oxygen species floating around in your cell. Your cells use NADPH to provide a hydrogen atom to help eliminate the danger. It can flip this around and generate reactive oxygen species in order to kill bacteria too. Also, in plants, NADPH is essential in photosynthesis, which the process by which plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make sugar.
They are different. NADH(Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) has a chemical composition of C^(21)H^(27)N^(7)O^(14)P^(2). While NADPH(Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate) is C^(21)H^(29)N^(7)O^(17)P^(3). As you can see, slightly different chemical compositions. Also, while NADH is used in cellular respiration, NADPH is used in photosynthesis. But, I am by no means a expert, so feel free to correct me.
NADH is used in processes that break down stuff (catabolism), NADPH in processes that build stuff (anabolism). NADPH is just NADH with an extra phosphate group attached.
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