Guanosine triphosphate

From Freepedia

Empirical formula	C10H16N5O14P3
Molecular weight	523.18 g/mol

Guanosine triphosphate (GTP) is also known as guanosine-5'-triphosphate and G3P. Biochemically, GTP is 9-β-D-ribofuranosylguanine-5'-triphosphate or, equivalently, 9-β-D-ribofuranosyl-2-amino-6-oxo-purine-5'-triphosphate. GTP is a purine nucleotide that is incorporated into the growing RNA chain during RNA synthesis, and used as a source of energy for protein synthesis.

GTP is also essential to signal transduction, where it is converted to GDP (guanosine diphosphate) through the action of GTPases.

Energy transfer

GTP is involved in energy transfer within the cell. For instance, one GTP molecule is generated for every turn of the citric acid cycle. This is tantamount to the generation of one molecule of ATP since GTP is readily converted to ATP.