title: A femtosecond visible/visible and visible/mid-infrared transient absorption study of the light harvesting complex II.
abstract: Light harvesting complex II (LHCII) is the most abundant protein in the thylakoid membrane of higher plants and green algae. LHCII acts to collect solar radiation, transferring this energy mainly toward photosystem II, with a smaller amount going to photosystem I; it is then converted into a chemical, storable form. We performed time-resolved femtosecond visible pump/mid-infrared probe and visible pump/visible probe absorption difference spectroscopy on purified LHCII to gain insight into the energy transfer in this complex occurring in the femto-picosecond time regime. We find that information derived from mid-infrared spectra, together with structural and modeling information, provides a unique visualization of the flow of energy via the bottleneck pigment chlorophyll a604.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Andreas D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Stahl
authors.forename: Mariangela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Donato
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: van Stokkum
authors.forename: Rienk
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van Grondelle
authors.forename: Marie Louise
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Groot
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000378:metabolism; D000077194:Chlorophyll A; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D007259:Infrared Rays; D008027:Light; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011487:Protein Conformation; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared; D013816:Thermodynamics; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes; D002734:Chlorophyll; C037184:chlorophyll b; D000077194:Chlorophyll A