Reaction center and antenna processes in photosynthesis at low temperature

Abstract

Around 1960 experiments of Arnold and Clayton, Chance and Nishimura and Calvin and coworkers demonstrated that the primary photosynthetic electron transfer processes are not abolished by cooling to cryogenic temperatures. After a brief historical introduction, this review discusses some aspects of electron transfer in bacterial reaction centers and of optical spectroscopy of photosynthetic systems with emphasis on low-temperature experiments.

The new theory of electron transfer: application to the photosynthetic reaction centre

“…Martin and co-workers [46,47] were the first to quantify this phenomenon, by measuring the rate of electron transfer in isolated reaction centres of Rhodobacter sphaeroides. In the late nineteen eighties they found a time constant of ~2.8 ps at room temperature falling to ~1.2 ps at 10 K. Since then, the acceleration of the rate of primary charge separation by cooling has been widely confirmed [48]. Now we have the explanation.…”

Design of bulky substituted porphyrin arrays for light harvesting applications

“…108 This objective is achieved through a series of subsequent photoinduced energy and electron transfers from light harvesting complexes to the reaction center of photosystem II (PSII), forming a long-lived charge-separated state. 109,110 Notably, PSII contains supercomplexes that are composed of two moieties: a central catalytic reaction center and peripheral light harvesting complexes (LHC) binding many chlorophyll chromophores (~200) and almost 50 carotenoids. All these LH clusters are called an antenna system, which transfers energy to the reaction center (Figure 3.1).…”