With the help of a diagram give a detailed description of the Calvin cycle

CBSE Class 11
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With the help of a diagram give a detailed description of the Calvin cycle.

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The Calvin cycle occurs in the stroma of the chloroplast.
It uses ATP and NADPH, produced during the light reactions, to synthesise sugars by fixing CO2.

The Calvin cycle has three main stages:
Carboxylation: It is the first phase of the Calvin cycle. It involves the carboxylation of ribulose bisphosphate by using CO2. The reaction is catalysed by the enzyme RuBP carboxylase-oxygenase. It results in the formation of 3-phosphoglyceric acid, the first stable compound of the dark reactions.
Reduction: It is a series of reactions which lead to the formation of glucose. It uses two molecules of ATP and two molecules of NADPH for phosphorylation and reduction, respectively, per molecule of CO2­ fixed.
Regeneration: This stage involves the regeneration of RuBP. It requires one molecule of ATP for phosphorylation to form one molecule of RuBP.