Superradiance and Exciton (De)localization in Light-Harvesting Complex II from Green Plants?

Fluorescence quantum yield and fluorescence lifetime measurements were performed on trimeric light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) from spinach in the temperature range 7−293 K. From the results the radiative rate was calculated, which is related to the amount of delocalization of excitations over different pigments because of intermolecular interactions. The emitting dipole strength of LHCII is very similar to that of unbound Chl a, and it appears to be almost independent of temperature. The apparent increase of the radiative rate upon lowering the temperature can largely be explained by the shrinking of the sample. It is concluded that at all temperatures the amount of exciton delocalizatio…

Pigment organization and energy transfer dynamics in isolated photosystem I (PSI) complexes from Arabidopsis thaliana depleted of the PSI-G, PSI-K, PSI-L, or PSI-N subunit.

Abstract Green plant photosystem I (PSI) consists of at least 18 different protein subunits. The roles of some of these protein subunits are not well known, in particular those that do not occur in the well characterized PSI complexes from cyanobacteria. We investigated the spectroscopic properties and excited-state dynamics of isolated PSI-200 particles from wild-type and mutant Arabidopsis thaliana plants devoid of the PSI-G, PSI-K, PSI-L, or PSI-N subunit. Pigment analysis and a comparison of the 5K absorption spectra of the various particles suggests that the PSI-L and PSI-H subunits together bind approximately five chlorophyll a molecules with absorption maxima near 688 and 667nm, that…

Contributory presentations/posters

Functional rearrangement of the light-harvesting antenna upon state transitions in a green alga

AbstractState transitions in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii serve to balance excitation energy transfer to photosystem I (PSI) and to photosystem II (PSII) and possibly play a role as a photoprotective mechanism. Thus, light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) can switch between the photosystems consequently transferring more excitation energy to PSII (state 1) or to PSI (state 2) or can end up in LHCII-only domains. In this study, low-temperature (77 K) steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence measured on intact cells of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii shows that independently of the state excitation energy transfer from LHCII to PSI or to PSII occurs on two main timescales of <15 ps and …