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Q.Explain C3 cycle. OR Explain Nephron with diagram.

Rajasthan RbseRajasthan Board Senior Secondary Part-I Examination 2017Subjective· 6mImportance★★★★★
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The C3 cycle (Calvin cycle) fixes CO2 into a 3-carbon compound (3-PGA) via RuBisCO, then uses ATP and NADPH from the light reactions to reduce it to sugar and regenerate the CO2 acceptor RuBP, in a repeating cycle occurring in the chloroplast stroma.

The C3 (Calvin-Benson) cycle is the biochemical pathway of CO2 fixation used by the majority of plants (C3 plants), occurring in the stroma of the chloroplast. It has three stages:

1. Carboxylation:

  • CO2 is fixed onto a 5-carbon acceptor molecule, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP), by the enzyme RuBisCO (ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase — the most abundant enzyme on Earth).
  • This forms an unstable 6-carbon intermediate that immediately splits into two molecules of 3-phosphoglyceric acid (3-PGA), a 3-carbon compound — this is the first stable product of the pathway, which is why it is called the C3 cycle/pathway.

2. Reduction:

  • Using ATP and NADPH generated by the light reactions, the two molecules of 3-PGA are reduced (via 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate as an intermediate) to glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P/PGAL), a 3-carbon sugar.
  • This is the step where the chemical energy captured in the light reaction (as ATP and NADPH) is actually stored into a carbon compound.

3. Regeneration:

  • Most of the G3P produced is used to regenerate the CO2 acceptor RuBP (using more ATP), allowing the cycle to continue accepting new CO2 molecules. …

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