title: The Eighth Bacteriochlorophyll Completes the Excitation Energy Funnel in the FMO Protein.
abstract: The Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) light-harvesting protein connects the outer antenna system (chlorosome/baseplate) with the reaction center complex in green sulfur bacteria. Since its first structure determination in the mid-70s, this pigment-protein complex has become an important model system to study excitation energy transfer. Recently, an additional bacteriochlorophyll a (the eighth) pigment was discovered in each subunit of this homotrimer. Our structure-based calculations of the optical properties of the FMO protein demonstrate that the eighth pigment is the linker to the baseplate, confirming recent suggestions from crystallographic studies.
authors: †Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
authors: Marcel
authors: M
authors: Schmidt Am Busch
authors: ‡Institut für Chemie und Biochemie, Freie Universität Berlin, Fabeckstrasse 36a, D-14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors: Frank
authors: F
authors: Müh
authors: ‡Institut für Chemie und Biochemie, Freie Universität Berlin, Fabeckstrasse 36a, D-14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors: Mohamed
authors: M
authors: El-Amine Madjet
authors: †Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Renger
keywords: FMO complex of Prosthecochloris aestuarii.; excitation energy transfer; optical properties of a pigment−protein complex; site energies; structure-based calculations of optical spectra