Is NADPH present in plants only?
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heya
Like many almost identical twins, NAD+ and NADP+ can take each other's place with almost no other cellular component the wiser. Both function as electron carriers. Their main job in the cell is to shuttle electrons around. They also have one more thing they both like to carry, and that's hydrogen. When they carry around hydrogen, they add H to the end of their acronym names. Thus, NAD+ becomes NADH and NADP+ becomes NADPH. The hydrogen is added and removed from their nicotinamide parts. When an H is present, NADH and NADPH are in a reduced form because whenever a molecule receives a hydrogen or electron it's said, in chemistry, to have been reduced. (If they lose a hydrogen or electron, the molecule is oxidized.)
Like many almost identical twins, NAD+ and NADP+ can take each other's place with almost no other cellular component the wiser. Both function as electron carriers. Their main job in the cell is to shuttle electrons around. They also have one more thing they both like to carry, and that's hydrogen. When they carry around hydrogen, they add H to the end of their acronym names. Thus, NAD+ becomes NADH and NADP+ becomes NADPH. The hydrogen is added and removed from their nicotinamide parts. When an H is present, NADH and NADPH are in a reduced form because whenever a molecule receives a hydrogen or electron it's said, in chemistry, to have been reduced. (If they lose a hydrogen or electron, the molecule is oxidized.)
Now despite being very similar, NAD+ and NADP+ are used very differently by the cells. NAD+ has the main job of carrying around electrons for use by the mitochondria and respiration while NADP has a different function. NADPH is used in biosynthesis. In other words, it is used to make biological molecules.
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