Calvin Cycle Diagram Generator

A calvin cycle diagram shows CO2 being built into sugar in the stroma. It draws the cycle as a loop through three phases — fixation, reduction, and regeneration — and marks where ATP and NADPH are spent. A labeled calvin cycle diagram also names each intermediate, including RuBP, 3-PGA, and G3P.

Carbon fixation, reduction, and regeneration of RuBP. Rubisco attaches CO2 to RuBP to form two molecules of 3-PGA; ATP and NADPH then reduce 3-PGA to G3P; finally most of the G3P is rearranged back into RuBP. A carbon fixation diagram usually starts at the rubisco step, since that is where inorganic carbon enters.

Six turns of the cycle produce one glucose molecule. Each turn fixes one CO2 and yields one G3P after three turns, so six turns give two G3P that combine into a six-carbon sugar, consuming 18 ATP and 12 NADPH along the way. SciFig's calvin cycle diagram generator can label that running count directly on the loop.

Describe the intermediates you want named and SciFig draws the loop. A fully labeled calvin cycle diagram includes CO2 entry, RuBP, rubisco, 3-PGA, G3P, and the ATP and NADPH consumed at the reduction step. SciFig's calvin cycle diagram generator produces labeled or blank versions from the same accurate base figure.

The Calvin cycle takes place in the stroma of the chloroplast. That is the fluid surrounding the thylakoids, which is why a light-independent reactions diagram draws the loop outside the thylakoid membrane, with ATP and NADPH arriving from it.

Because no step in the cycle uses light directly. The cycle still depends on the ATP and NADPH made by the light reactions, so it stops in prolonged darkness — a light-independent reactions diagram makes that dependency explicit by drawing both inputs entering the loop.