Modeling of exciton quenching in photosystem II

Excitation energy transfer and trapping by the artificially postulated traps in photosystem II (PSII) were modeled in terms of a coarse-grained model. The model is based on the assumption that the excitation energy transfer within a pigment-protein complex is much faster than the intercomplex excitation energy transfer. As a result, the excitation energy transfer and trapping rates by the reaction center (RC) were rescaled by the relevant entropic factors and an additional trapping rate for a specific pigment-protein complex responsible for the non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) had to be included into the theoretical framework. For the analysis, dimeric models of PSII were considered. The efficiency of the excitation quenching by the NPQ traps, depending on their positioning and on the trapping rate, was analyzed. It was concluded that the highest efficiency of the NPQ quencher could be achieved when they are localized in the major light-harvesting complexes, LHCII, and the excitation relaxation in this state is fast, of the order of picoseconds and even faster. The origin of the state responsible for NPQ is discussed.