Guide:
Term / Important
Key definition
Possible enumeration
Calvin Cycle
- Biochemical pathway that allows for
carbon fixation incorporates CO2
into organic molecules
- Occurs in the stroma
- Uses ATP from light-dependent
reactions and NADPH from
light-dependent reaction
- light-independent reaction
- named after Melvin Calvin
Dark Cycle
- refer to it because the light is not
directly required
Calvin-Benson Cycle
- Melvin Calvin
- Andrew Benson (another scientist
involved in its discovery)
PCR - Photosynthetic Carbon Reduction
Cycle
To build carbohydrates, cells need:
1. Carbon and oxygen atoms – from
CO2
2. Hydrogen atoms – provided by
NADPH from photosystem II
3. Energy – provided by ATP from
ETC of light-dependent reactions
Carbon Fixation and Sugar Formation
Reactants
1. CO2 – from the atmosphere
2. ATP and NADPH – from the
light-independent reactions
3. Ribulose – a 5-carbon sugar, is
recycled throughout the cycle.
● CO2 is captured from the
atmosphere.
- RuBisCO (Ribulose
Biphosphate) is an enzyme
in the stroma that captures
CO2
● CO2 enters and O2 leaves the leaf
through the stoma.
Three Stages of the Calvin Cycle
1. Carbon Fixation
- Carbon from the atmosphere
is “fixed” into carbohydrates
- → CO2 is combined with
ribulose, accomplished with
an enzyme (RuBisCO)
- Forms a 6-carbon
intermediate molecule
- CO2 + Ribulose → 2PGA
1C 5C 3C
2. Reduction/Sugar Formation
- PGA molecules are
phosphorylated by ATP and
reduced by NADPH
- Final product: 2
Glyceraldehyde-3-
phosphates (G-3-P) are
formed
- One G-3-P is transported
from the chloroplast and
used to make glucose,
fructose, starches, cellulose,
etc.
- A phosphate group (from
ATP) is then attached to each
 3-phosphoglycerate by an
enzyme, forming
1,3-phosphoglycerate.

3. Regeneration (of Ribulose/ RuBP)

- The other G-3-P is returned
to the Calvin cycle and used
to make another Ribulose
- Five molecules of G3P
undergo a series of complex
enzymatic reactions to form
three molecules of RuBP

Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate can be used

for many things, including:
Autotrophs use the energy in light to
● Used to make glucose
make food
● Used to recycle ribulose for the
- Autotrophs use the food they make
Calvin cycle
in cellular respiration
● Used to make the sugars needed to
- Plants use the carbohydrates
build ATP, DNA and RNA
they produce for cellular
● Can be converted into lipids
respiration
● Can be converted into amino acids
- Plants use the oxygen they
to make proteins
produce for cellula
● Can be broken down in glycolysis
rrespiration
Heterotrophs eat the autotrophs
Plant cells use the organic G-3-P molecules
- Use the food from the autotrophs to
produced in photosynthesis:
fuel cellular respiration
● Production of fats, proteins and
- Use the excess oxygen given off by
other carbohydrates
autotrophs for cellular respiration
● Production of toxins for their
The circle of life:
protection
- Animals get sugar, oxygen, amino
- Many of these are useful
acids, fats and vitamins from plants
medicines.
- Plants get carbon dioxide, water and
- Some can be used as natural
nitrogen from animals
insecticides.
● Production of vitamins
Important points to know:
- Molecules that we cannot
● The sugar produced in the Calvin
make, but that we need
cycle is not the six-carbon glucose
with which we are familiar. This is
formed later on. What is made in the
Calvin Cycle is a three-carbon sugar
known as G3P, or
glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate.
 ● The Calvin Cycle needs to ‘spin’
three times to make one molecule of
G3P from three molecules of CO2.
What happens to G3P after its release from
the cycle?
● Two G3Ps can combine together to
form either glucose or fructose which
are both six-carbon sugar.
● Glucose and fructose can be
combined to form sucrose.
● Glucose can be connected in chains
to form starch.
● G3Ps can also be used in lipid and
protein synthesis.
also produced in the Calvin cycle in
photosynthesis.
RuBisCO (Ribulose biphosphate
carboxylase)
- is an enzyme in the stroma that
captures CO2
Phosphoglycerate
- 3-Phosphoglyceric acid is the
conjugate acid of
3-phosphoglycerate or glycerate
3-phosphate. This glycerate is a
biochemically significant metabolic
intermediate in both glycolysis and
the Calvin-Benson cycle.
G3P (Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate)
- ATP and NADPH are used to
convert the six molecules of 3-PGA
into 6 molecules of a chemical called

Extra Terms ?????

RuBP (Ribulose Biphosphate)

- Ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate is an
organic substance that is involved in
photosynthesis, notably as the
principal CO₂ acceptor in plants.
- It is a colourless anion, a double
phosphate ester of the ketopentose
called ribulose.

PGA (Phosphoglyceraldehyde)
- The 3-carbon molecule is created
from pGAL in glycolysis which is