Imagine that a starving cell reached the stage where every bit of its ATP was depleted and converted toADP?

Question

plus phosphate. If that cell were placed in fresh nutrient broth at this point, would it recover and survive? Explain the answer on the basis of what is known of glucose breakdown.

Answer 1

glucose is broken down in the metabolic pathway known as glycolysis, in the first step of glycolysis, the energy of ATP is used to attach one phosphate to the glucose molecule to "prime" it for the further reactions, so if ATP was entirely depleted, this initial input of energy couldn't happen, therefor glycolysis would stop, and the cell would die

Answer 2

fascinating question.

your answer really involves the mitochondria (the cell with in the cell that is responsible for ATP production).

Mitochondria are complicated structures, and they respond to environmental feed back very well.

Since I don't remember the ADP pathway with any clarity right now, my answer will be only a guess.

If the fresh broth contained phosphates, I am going to say that the cell could recover.

I think this it a trick question though.

How long has the cell been without ATP?

I ask this because there are certain "checkpoints " in a cell's metabolism that will initiate an unrecoverable cell death, despite its sudden pulse of nutrients. In other words there is a moment of "no return".

something to consider.

Cheers!