Theory of excitation energy transfer: from structure to function.
This mini-review summarizes our current theoretical knowledge about excitation energy transfer in pigment-protein complexes. The challenge for theory lies in the complexity of these systems and in the fact that the pigment-pigment and the pigment-protein interactions are of equal magnitude. The first part of this review contains an introduction to the theory of light harvesting and to structure- based calculations of the parameters of the theory. The second part provides a discussion of the standard Förster and Redfield theories of excitation energy transfer, which are valid in the limit of weak and strong pigment-pigment coupling, respectively. Afterward, we provide a description of recent extensions of the standard theories and discuss challenging problems to be solved in the future.
Renger
Thomas
T
Institut für Chemie und Biochemie, Freie Universität Berlin, Fabeckstrasse 36a, 14195 Berlin, Germany. rth@chemie.fu-berlin.de
D004735:Energy Transfer; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D010860:Pigments, Biological / Q000378:metabolism; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes; D010860:Pigments, Biological