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CARBON FIXATION PATHWAY [1 record]

Record 1 2003-11-18

English

Subject field(s)
  • Biochemistry
  • Environment
DEF

[One of the phases of photosynthesis, involving] the incorporation of CO2 into glucose by enzymatic reactions (Source: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, 1990).

CONT

The second stage in the process of phtosynthesis is called the Calvin Cycle (it is also called the Calvin-Benson Cycle or the Carbon Fixation Cycle). In the Calvin Cycle, carbon molecules from carbon dioxide, CO2, are fixed into the sugar glucose, (C6H12O2) (in six repeats of the cycle). The Calvin Cycle takes place in the stroma of eucaryotic chloroplasts. The major enzyme that mediates the Calvin Cycle is Rubisco (ribulose-1-5-biphosphate carboxylase). The Calvin Cycle was first investigated in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the Nobel Prize winning chemist Melvin Calvin (1911-1997).

CONT

All photosynthetic plants take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it, through a complicated sequence of chemical reactions, into starches and sugars. In C3 plants all the cells in the mesophyll of a leaf conduct photosynthesis by the same process, a sequence of reactions called the Calvin cycle. Early in the cycle, atmospheric carbon dioxide is incorporated, or fixed, into a compound containing three carbon atoms.

CONT

Calvin-Benson Cycle (C3 cycle). So named because some of the important molecules in the cycle have 3 carbons in them. Requires CO2 (normally from air); a sugar to capture the CO2 (ribulose biphosphate, RuBP); catalytic enzymes and energy as ATP & NADPH (obtained from light-dependent reactions).

Key term(s)
  • C3
  • Calvin-Benson pathway
  • carbon fixation pathway
  • C3 carbon fixation cycle
  • C3 carbon fixation pathway

French

Domaine(s)
  • Biochimie
  • Environnement
DEF

Cascade de réactions permettant, à partir de cinq trioses, de regénerer trois pentoses, nécessaires à la fixation de trois molécules de CO2 [...]

OBS

À chaque révolution de ce cycle, un triose est utilisé à la synthèse des glucides, les cinq autres sont réinvestis dans le cycle. L'énergie nécessaire à cette synthèse provient de la phase lumineuse de la photosynthèse; les réactions sont catalysées par des enzymes spécifiques.

CONT

Le mécanisme le plus classique découvert par Calvin en 1949, met en jeu des molécules organiques à trois atomes de carbone, d'où le nom de cycle C3 ou métabolisme C3 qu'on lui donne généralement.

CONT

La production de sucres contenant trois à sept atomes de carbone a lieu par l'intermédiaire d'un cycle de réactions biochimiques complexes appelé cycle de Calvin, en référence au biochimiste américain Melvin Calvin qui l'a élucidé, et conduit à la formation de grains d'amidon stockés dans la matrice des chloroplastes.

OBS

Une des étapes de la photosynthèse.

Key term(s)
  • cycle de type C3

Spanish

Campo(s) temático(s)
  • Bioquímica
  • Medio ambiente
DEF

Ciclo metabólico que se produce en los cloroplastos de plantas verdes y bacterias autótrofas y en el que se realiza fijación de CO2 sobre la riburosa-1,5-P, lo que permite la síntesis de hidratos de carbono.

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