The light-independent reactions of photosynthesis

These involve the reduction of carbon dioxide using reduced NADP

and ATP produced in the light-dependent reactions of
photosynthesis.
The reactions are known as the Calvin cycle, and they take place in
the stroma of the chloroplast.
Pass the mouse pointer over this diagram for more information.
More explanation is given below the diagram.
calvin cycle

Although the cycle is quite complicated, there are not too many
compounds that need to be known about at this level:
Compound No of
C atoms
No of
phosphates
Ribulose bisphosphate
(RUBP)
5
2
Glycerate 3-phosphate
(GP) 3
1
Triose phosphate
(TP) 3
1
Ribulose monophosphate
(RuP) 5
1

There are effectively 3 stages to this process:

1) Carbon dioxide fixation
This process is called fixation because carbon dioxide from the air is
converted into an organic compound which cannot move away.
It is probably convenient to consider 6 molecules of carbon dioxide
entering the cycle, so that the next step below occurs 6 times.
Carbon dioxide reacts with ribulose bisphosphate RuBP.
For this reason RuBP is called a CO2 acceptor.
Yet another way of saying this is that RuBP is carboxylated.
This occurs under the influence of the enzyme ribulose
bisphosphate carboxylase (RUBISCO) which is said to be the most
abundant protein on the planet.
Ribulose bisphosphate has 5 carbon atoms and 2 phosphate groups,
and by accepting one more carbon atom from CO2 it should be
converted into a 6 carbon, 2 phosphate compound. However ...
This compound is immediately converted into 2 molecules of
glycerate 3-phosphate (GP), which contains 3 carbons and one
phosphate group.
For every 6 molecules of CO2 entering the cycle, 12 molecules of GP
are produced.
This pathway is called C3 carbon fixation because the first product is
a 3-carbon compound. Some plants have an alternative pathway C4 carbon fixation - in which the 4-carbon compound oxalacetate
(OAA) is produced and others have a CAM pathway.
2) Carbon dioxide reduction
There are several published versions of this section, varying in
complexity, and using different terminology.
This stage is so called because when CO2 reacts with H from
reduced NADP it gains hydrogen and loses oxygen to become CH2O,
the empirical (simplest) formula for carbohydrates. Reduction is loss
of oxygen, or reaction with hydrogen, or gain of electrons. However
the CO2 is now part of glycerate 3-phosphate (GP).
Glycerate 3-phosphate (GP) is converted into triose phosphate (TP)
using reduced NADP and ATP.

The reduced NADP provides the reducing power (hydrogen) and is

converted back to NADP which is then reduced again in the lightdependent reactions.
ATP is also used to provide energy for the conversion. It is converted
into ADP + Pi, which are reconverted into ATP in the light-dependent
reactions.
Some of the triose phosphate (two molecules out of the twelve) is
removed from the cycle, to be converted into glucose, or other
molecules such as starch, lipid or protein.
3) Ribulose bisphosphate regeneration
In a complex series of reactions, the remaining ten molecules of TP
are converted into 6 molecules of the 5-carbon compound ribulose
monophosphate
(10x3C=6x5C, but some phosphates are lost from the cycle).
Ribulose monophosphate is converted into ribulose bisphosphate,
using a phosphate group from ATP.
Ribulose bisphosphate reacts with/accepts carbon dioxide/becomes
carboxylated, to keep the cycle operating again ...