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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2026 Mar 22.
Published in final edited form as: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2025 Oct 13;179:106419. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106419

Table 2.

Factors mediating biological metabolic efficiency.

1. Source of ATP: ATP production rates by glycolysis or mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation
2. Stoichiometry: ATP produced per unit of reductive substrate (NADPH, FADH2) relative to the amount of ADP in the system (ATP/ADP ratio is more important than total ATP levels)
3. Background Costs: Rate of ATP consumption for allostasis, growth, adaptation, and housekeeping (e.g., transcription, translation, biogenesis, maintenance, and repair)

Table 2: Three critical factors that contribute to the efficiency of metabolism itself (biological metabolic efficiency). Other factors such as the energetic substrates used as inputs for ATP production also contribute to metabolic efficiency, but are not included here because they are not features of the system itself. ATP: Adenine triphosphate; ADP: Adenine diphosphate; NADPH: Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Phosphate; FADH2: Reduced form of Flavin Adenine Dinucleotide (FAD)