Insight into the structure of photosynthetic LH2 aggregate from spectroscopy simulations

Using the electrostatic model of intermolecular interactions, we obtain the Frenkel exciton Hamiltonian parameters for the chlorophyll Qy band of a photosynthetic peripheral light harvesting complex LH2 of a purple bacteria Rhodopseudomonas acidophila from structural data. The intermolecular couplings are mostly determined by the chlorophyll relative positions, whereas the molecular transition energies are determined by the background charge distribution of the whole complex. The protonation pattern of titratable residues is used as a tunable parameter. By studying several protonation state scenarios for distinct protein groups and comparing the simulated absorption and circular dichroism spectra to experiment, we determine the most probable configuration of the protonation states of various side groups of the protein.