title: Spectroscopy of the peridinin-chlorophyll-a protein: insight into light-harvesting strategy of marine algae.
abstract: An important component of the photosynthetic apparatus is a light-harvesting system that captures light energy and transfers it efficiently to the reaction center. Depending on environmental conditions, photosynthetic antennae have adopted various strategies for this function. Peridinin-chlorophyll-a protein (PCP) represents a unique situation because, unlike other antenna systems which have a preponderance of chlorophyll, it has the carotenoid, peridinin, as its major pigment. The key structural feature of peridinin is a conjugated carbonyl group. Owing to the presence of this group, an intramolecular charge-transfer excited state is formed in peridinin which exhibits different excited state spectra and dynamics depending on the polarity of the environment. The charge-transfer state also facilitates energy transfer between peridinin and chlorophyll-a in PCP. This review summarizes results of spectroscopic investigations of PCP in the past few years, emphasizing the specific light-harvesting strategy developed by marine photosynthetic organisms utilizing carbonyl-containing carotenoids in their antenna complexes.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physical Biology, University of South Bohemia, Zamek 136, CZ-373 33 Nove Hrady, Czech Republic. polivka@ufb.jcu.cz
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Polívka
authors.forename: Roger G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Hiller
authors.forename: Harry A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Frank
mesh_terms: D002338:Carotenoids / Q000737:chemistry*; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000737:chemistry*; D004735:Energy Transfer; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes / Q000737:chemistry*; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D010788:Photosynthesis / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes; D002734:Chlorophyll; C016040:peridinin; D002338:Carotenoids