Light Independent Reactions

Light Independent reactions

Occur in the stroma of the chloroplast
fix atmospheric carbon dioxide into
carbohydrate molecules.
Arguably the most important set of reactions
in living organisms because it is the basis upon
which life on Earth rests.
Discovery of the reactions
Depended on the use of radioactive
isotopes, specifically
14
C

14
C was first made by Ruben and
Kamen in 1940 by bombarding
graphite with charged particles in a
cyclotron.
By giving plants carbon dioxide
containing
14
C , the pathway in
photosynthesis could be discovered
(though not by them)
Samuel Ruben
Martin Kamen
Calvins Lollipop Experiment
Immersed photosynthetic algae in environment containing
only
14
CO
2
He placed light on the algae for a certain amount of time,
then stopped the process by killing the algae (placing them
in boiling alcohol)
Used paper chromatography to separate the different
compounds present
In order to see the compounds clearly, he exposed the
image to X-rays. These were absorbed by the
14
C, leaving a
black spot in the image.
He then stopped the reaction at progressively shorter
intervals to determine which compounds appeared first.
Calvins Lollipop experiment
The photos to the
right are images
taken by Calvins
lab.
The paper was in
the shape of a disk,
and so it looked like
a lollipop.
The Calvin Cycle
Calvin determined that the first molecule
produced in the light independent reaction is
phosphoglycerate (a 3 carbon molecule).
Searched fruitlessly for a 2 carbon molecule that
carbon dioxide would combine to to create PGA.
Realized that carbon dioxide was actually
combining with a 5 carbon molecule, ribulose
biphosphate (RuBP). This created a 6 carbon
molecule that quickly broken down into 2
molecules of PGA.
The Calvin Cycle