Phosphagens, also known as macroergic compounds, are high energy storage compounds, also known as high-energy phosphate compounds, chiefly found in muscular tissue in animals. They allow a high-energy phosphate pool to be maintained in a concentration range, which, if it all were adenosine triphosphate (ATP), would create problems due to the ATP-consuming reactions in these tissues. As muscle tissues can have sudden demands for much energy, these compounds can maintain a reserve of high-energy phosphates that can be used as needed, to provide the energy that could not be immediately supplied by glycolysis or oxidative phosphorylation. Phosphagens supply immediate but limited energy.
When the Phosphagen System has been depleted of phosphocreatine (creatine phosphate), the resulting AMP produced from the adenylate kinase (myokinase) reaction is primarily regulated by the Purine Nucleotide Cycle.[3][4]
References
^Selected Topics in the History of Biochemistry, G Semenza
^Valberg, Stephanie J. (2008), "15. Skeletal Muscle Function", in Kaneko, J. Jerry; Harvey, John W.; Bruss, Michael L. (eds.), Clinical Biochemistry of Domestic Animals (6th ed.), Academic Press, pp. 459–484, ISBN978-0-12-370491-7, retrieved 2023-10-10