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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Measuring Carbon-based Contaminant Mineralization Using Combined CO2 Flux and Radiocarbon Analyses
Published on: October 21, 2016
Mapping the carbon reduction cycle: a personal retrospective
1, 785 Balra Drive, El Cerrito, CA, 94530-3302, USA, jbassham@attbi.com.
Abstract:
The photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle was elucidated through the use of (14)CO(2) during photosynthesis to label metabolic intermediates. Mapping and proof of the cycle required identification of labeled metabolites, observation of changes in levels of labeled metabolites during transitions from light to dark and from high to low CO(2) levels, determination of intramolecular distribution of (14)C within the metabolites after a few seconds of photosynthesis with (14)CO(2), and estimation of metabolite concentrations, used to calculate true free energy changes at each step in the cycle.
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