title: Spectral and kinetic effects accompanying the assembly of core complexes of Rhodobacter sphaeroides.
abstract: In the present work, spectral and kinetic changes accompanying the assembly of the light-harvesting 1 (LH1) complex with the reaction center (RC) complex into monomeric RC-LH1 and dimeric RC-LH1-PufX core complexes of the photosynthetic purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides are systematically studied over the temperature range of 4.5-300K. The samples were interrogated with a combination of optical absorption, hole burning, fluorescence excitation, steady state and picosecond time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. Fair additivity of the LH1 and RC absorption spectra suggests rather weak electronic coupling between them. A low-energy tail revealed at cryogenic temperatures in the absorption spectra of both monomeric and dimeric core complexes is proved to be due to the special pair of the RC. At selected excitation intensity and temperature, the fluorescence decay time of core complexes is shown to be a function of multiple factors, most importantly of the presence/absence of RCs, the supramolecular architecture (monomeric or dimeric) of the complexes, and whether the complexes were studied in a native membrane environment or in a detergent - purified state.
authors: Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, W. Ostwald Str. 1, 50411 Tartu, Estonia; Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Riia 23, 51010 Tartu, Estonia. Electronic address: arvi.freiberg@ut.ee.
authors: Arvi
authors: A
authors: Freiberg
authors: Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, W. Ostwald Str. 1, 50411 Tartu, Estonia.
authors: Manoop
authors: M
authors: Chenchiliyan
authors: Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, W. Ostwald Str. 1, 50411 Tartu, Estonia.
authors: Margus
authors: M
authors: Rätsep
authors: Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, W. Ostwald Str. 1, 50411 Tartu, Estonia.
authors: Kõu
authors: K
authors: Timpmann
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D008027:Light; D045331:Photosystem I Protein Complex / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D012242:Rhodobacter sphaeroides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000201:enzymology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D045331:Photosystem I Protein Complex
keywords: Excitation energy transfer; Exciton; Light-harvesting; Photosynthesis; Spectroscopy