For every net glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P) molecule synthesized by the Calvin cycle, how many ATP and NADPH molecules does the pathway consume?

Core Concept

Fixing three CO2 molecules yields six molecules of 3-PGA. Reducing those six 3-PGA into G3P consumes 6 ATP and 6 NADPH during the reduction phase. Because only one G3P exits the cycle, five must be rearranged to regenerate three RuBP, which costs 3 more ATP. The full accounting is therefore 9 ATP and 6 NADPH per exported G3P.