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Published on: October 10, 2014
Study on energy transfer between carotenoid and chlorophyll a in cytochrome b6f complex from Bryopsis corticulans
Bin-Xing Li1, Ping Zuo, Xiao-Bo Chen
1Key Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Environmental Molecular Physiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nan Xincun 20, Xiangshan, 100093, Beijing, P.R. China. lbli@ibcas.ac.cn
Abstract:
The excitation energy transfer between carotenoid and chlorophyll (Chl) in the cytochrome b ( 6 ) f complex from Bryopsis corticulans (B. corticulans), in which the carotenoid is 9-cis-alpha-carotene, was investigated by means of fluorescence excitation and sub-microsecond time-resolved absorption spectroscopies. The presence of efficient singlet excitation transfer from alpha-carotene to Chl a was found with an overall efficiency as high as approximately approximately 24%, meanwhile the Chl a-to-alpha-carotene triplet excitation transfer was also evidenced. Circular dichroism spectroscopy showed that alpha-carotene molecule existed in an asymmetric environment and Chl a molecule had a certain orientation in this complex.
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