Spectral trends in the fluorescence of single bacterial light-harvesting complexes: experiments and modified redfield simulations

Optical cavity-mediated exciton dynamics in photosynthetic light harvesting 2 complexes

Strong light-matter interaction leads to the formation of hybrid polariton states and alters the photophysical dynamics of organic materials and biological systems without modifying their chemical structure. Here, we experimentally investigated a well-known photosynthetic protein, light harvesting 2 complexes (LH2) from purple bacteria under strong coupling with the light mode of a Fabry-Perot optical microcavity. Using femtosecond pump probe spectroscopy, we analyzed the polariton dynamics of the strongly coupled system and observed a significant prolongation of the excited state lifetime compared with the bare exciton, which can be explained in terms of the exciton reservoir model. Our findings indicate the potential of tuning the dynamic of the whole photosynthetic unit, which contains several light harvesting complexes and reaction centers, with the help of strong exciton-photon coupling, and opening the discussion about possible design strategies of artificial photosynthetic devices.

Computational elucidations on the role of vibrations in energy transfer processes of photosynthetic complexes

Coupling between pigment excitations and nuclear movements in photosynthetic complexes is known to modulate the excitation energy transfer (EET) efficiencies. Toward providing microscopic information, researchers often apply simulation techniques and investigate how vibrations are involved in EET processes. Here, reports on such roles of nuclear movements are discussed from a theory perspective. While vibrations naturally present random thermal fluctuations that can affect energy transferring characteristics, they can also be intertwined with exciton structures and create more specific non-adiabatic energy transfer pathways. For reliable simulations, a bath model that accurately mimics a given molecular system is required. Methods for obtaining such a model in combination with quantum chemical electronic structure calculations and molecular dynamics trajectory simulations are discussed. Various quantum dynamics simulation tools that can handle pigment-to-pigment energy transfers together with their vibrational characters are also touched on. Behaviors of molecular vibrations often deviate from ideality, especially when all-atom details are included, which practically forces us to treat them classically. We conclude this perspective by considering some recent reports that suggest that classical descriptions of bath effects with all-atom details may still produce valuable information for analyzing sophisticated contributions by vibrations to EET processes.

Apoprotein heterogeneity increases spectral disorder and a step-wise modification of the B850 fluorescence peak position

It has already been established that the quaternary structure of the main light-harvesting complex (LH2) from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris is a nonameric 'ring' of PucAB heterodimers and under low-light culturing conditions an increased diversity of PucB synthesis occurs. In this work, single molecule fluorescence emission studies show that different classes of LH2 'rings' are present in "low-light" adapted cells and that an unknown chaperon process creates multiple sub-types of 'rings' with more conformational sub-states and configurations. This increase in spectral disorder significantly augments the cross-section for photon absorption and subsequent energy flow to the reaction centre trap when photon availability is a limiting factor. This work highlights yet another variant used by phototrophs to gather energy for cellular development.

The Role of Resonant Vibrations in Electronic Energy Transfer

Nuclear vibrations play a prominent role in the spectroscopy and dynamics of electronic systems. As recent experimental and theoretical studies suggest, this may be even more so when vibrational frequencies are resonant with transitions between the electronic states. Herein, a vibronic multilevel Redfield model is reported for excitonically coupled electronic two-level systems with a few explicitly included vibrational modes and interacting with a phonon bath. With numerical simulations the effects of the quantized vibrations on the dynamics of energy transfer and coherence in a model dimer are illustrated. The resonance between the vibrational frequency and energy gap between the sites leads to a large delocalization of vibronic states, which then results in faster energy transfer and longer-lived mixed coherences.

Ultrafast energy relaxation in single light-harvesting complexes

Energy relaxation in light-harvesting complexes has been extensively studied by various ultrafast spectroscopic techniques, the fastest processes being in the sub-100-fs range. At the same time, much slower dynamics have been observed in individual complexes by single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy (SMS). In this work, we use a pump-probe-type SMS technique to observe the ultrafast energy relaxation in single light-harvesting complexes LH2 of purple bacteria. After excitation at 800 nm, the measured relaxation time distribution of multiple complexes has a peak at 95 fs and is asymmetric, with a tail at slower relaxation times. When tuning the excitation wavelength, the distribution changes in both its shape and position. The observed behavior agrees with what is to be expected from the LH2 excited states structure. As we show by a Redfield theory calculation of the relaxation times, the distribution shape corresponds to the expected effect of Gaussian disorder of the pigment transition energies. By repeatedly measuring few individual complexes for minutes, we find that complexes sample the relaxation time distribution on a timescale of seconds. Furthermore, by comparing the distribution from a single long-lived complex with the whole ensemble, we demonstrate that, regarding the relaxation times, the ensemble can be considered ergodic. Our findings thus agree with the commonly used notion of an ensemble of identical LH2 complexes experiencing slow random fluctuations.

Conformational switching in a light-harvesting protein as followed by single-molecule spectroscopy

Among the ultimate goals of protein physics, the complete, experimental description of the energy paths leading to protein conformational changes remains a challenge. Single protein fluorescence spectroscopy constitutes an approach of choice for addressing protein dynamics, and, among naturally fluorescing proteins, light-harvesting (LH) proteins from purple bacteria constitute an ideal object for such a study. LHs bind bacteriochlorophyll a molecules, which confer on them a high intrinsic fluorescence yield. Moreover, the electronic properties of these pigment-proteins result from the strong excitonic coupling between their bound bacteriochlorophyll a molecules in combination with the large energetic disorder due to slow fluctuations in their structure. As a result, the position and probability of their fluorescence transition delicately depends on the precise realization of the disorder of the set of bound pigments, which is governed by the LH protein dynamics. Analysis of these parameters using time-resolved single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy thus yields direct access to the protein dynamics. Applying this technique to the LH2 protein from Rhodovulum (Rdv.) sulfidophilum, the structure—and consequently the fluorescence properties—of which depends on pH, allowed us to follow a single protein, pH-induced, reversible, conformational transition. Hence, for the first time, to our knowledge, a protein transition can be visualized through changes in the electronic structure of the intrinsic cofactors, at a level of a single LH protein, which opens a new, to our knowledge, route for understanding the changes in energy landscape that underlie protein function and adaptation to the needs of living organisms.

Quantum coherent energy transfer over varying pathways in single light-harvesting complexes

The initial steps of photosynthesis comprise the absorption of sunlight by pigment-protein antenna complexes followed by rapid and highly efficient funneling of excitation energy to a reaction center. In these transport processes, signatures of unexpectedly long-lived coherences have emerged in two-dimensional ensemble spectra of various light-harvesting complexes. Here, we demonstrate ultrafast quantum coherent energy transfer within individual antenna complexes of a purple bacterium under physiological conditions. We find that quantum coherences between electronically coupled energy eigenstates persist at least 400 femtoseconds and that distinct energy-transfer pathways that change with time can be identified in each complex. Our data suggest that long-lived quantum coherence renders energy transfer in photosynthetic systems robust in the presence of disorder, which is a prerequisite for efficient light harvesting.

Polarization single complex imaging of circular photosynthetic antenna

Single complex fluorescence polarization spectroscopy is applied to study the peripheral light harvesting antenna (LH2) from photosynthetic purple bacterium Rhodopseudomonas (Rps.) acidophila. The measured two-dimensional excitation-emission polarization plots are used to construct geometric representation for the absorbing B800 and emitting B850 as ellipses. The shape and orientation of the ellipses is discussed in terms of tilted LH2 complexes where emission occurs from energetically disordered B850 excitons.

Physical origins and models of energy transfer in photosynthetic light-harvesting

We perform a quantitative comparison of different energy transfer theories, i.e. modified Redfield, standard and generalized Förster theories, as well as combined Redfield-Förster approach. Physical limitations of these approaches are illustrated and critical values of the key parameters indicating their validity are found. We model at a quantitative level the spectra and dynamics in two photosynthetic antenna complexes: in phycoerythrin 545 from cryptophyte algae and in trimeric LHCII complex from higher plants. These two examples show how the structural organization determines a directed energy transfer and how equilibration within antenna subunits and migration between subunits are superimposed.

Beyond Förster resonance energy transfer in biological and nanoscale systems

After photoexcitation, energy absorbed by a molecule can be transferred efficiently over a distance of up to several tens of angstroms to another molecule by the process of resonance energy transfer, RET (also commonly known as electronic energy transfer, EET). Examples of where RET is observed include natural and artificial antennae for the capture and energy conversion of light, amplification of fluorescence-based sensors, optimization of organic light-emitting diodes, and the measurement of structure in biological systems (FRET). Forster theory has proven to be very successful at estimating the rate of RET in many donor-acceptor systems, but it has also been of interest to discover when this theory does not work. By identifying these cases, researchers have been able to obtain, sometimes surprising, insights into excited-state dynamics in complex systems. In this article, we consider various ways that electronic energy transfer is promoted by mechanisms beyond those explicitly considered in Forster RET theory. First, we recount the important situations when the electronic coupling is not accurately calculated by the dipole-dipole approximation. Second, we examine the related problem of how to describe solvent screening when the dipole approximation fails. Third, there are situations where we need to be careful about the separability of electronic coupling and spectral overlap factors. For example, when the donors and/or acceptors are molecular aggregates rather than individual molecules, then RET occurs between molecular exciton states and we must invoke generalized Forster theory (GFT). In even more complicated cases, involving the intermediate regime of electronic energy transfer, we should consider carefully nonequilibrium processes and coherences and how bath modes can be shared. Lastly, we discuss how information is obscured by various forms of energetic disorder in ensemble measurements and we outline how single molecule experiments continue to be important in these instances.

Lindblad equations for strongly coupled populations and coherences in photosynthetic complexes

Recent experimental observations of time-resolved multidimensional signals in the light-harvesting antennae Fenna-Mathews-Olson [G. S. Engel et al., Nature (London) 446, 782 (2007)] show large oscillations of exciton populations coupled to the long-lived coherences. These effects may not be reproduced by the standard Redfield theory which assumes weak coupling to a bath. A more general relaxation superoperator which holds for all system-bath coupling parameter regimes is constructed by taking into account the statistics (covariances) of Lindblad equation parameters. Simulations for a model dimer reproduce all observed strong coupling effects.

The peripheral light-harvesting complexes from purple sulfur bacteria have different 'ring' sizes

The integral membrane light-harvesting (LH) proteins from purple photosynthetic bacteria form circular oligomers of an elementary unit that is composed of two very hydrophobic polypeptides, termed alpha and beta. These apoprotein dimers are known to associate into closed circular arrays of 8, 9 and 16 alpha/beta-mers. We report the existence of peripheral LH proteins purified from Allochromatium vinosum with two intermediate ring sizes and postulate that one is a 13 alpha/beta-mer. This shows that LH proteins are able to form membrane rings of continuously increasing diameter from 68 to 115A. The presence of these new ring sizes warrants further study, as it will help to further validate the structure-function models of LH proteins currently found in the literature.

The low-energy forms of photosystem I light-harvesting complexes: spectroscopic properties and pigment-pigment interaction characteristics

In this work the spectroscopic properties of the special low-energy absorption bands of the outer antenna complexes of higher plant Photosystem I have been investigated by means of low-temperature absorption, fluorescence, and fluorescence line-narrowing experiments. It was found that the red-most absorption bands of Lhca3, Lhca4, and Lhca1-4 peak, respectively, at 704, 708, and 709 nm and are responsible for 725-, 733-, and 732-nm fluorescence emission bands. These bands are more red shifted compared to "normal" chlorophyll a (Chl a) bands present in light-harvesting complexes. The low-energy forms are characterized by a very large bandwidth (400-450 cm(-1)), which is the result of both large homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening. The observed optical reorganization energy is untypical for Chl a and resembles more that of BChl a antenna systems. The large broadening and the changes in optical reorganization energy are explained by a mixing of an Lhca excitonic state with a charge transfer state. Such a charge transfer state can be stabilized by the polar residues around Chl 1025. It is shown that the optical reorganization energy is changing through the inhomogeneous distribution of the red-most absorption band, with the pigments contributing to the red part of the distribution showing higher values. A second red emission form in Lhca4 was detected at 705 nm and originates from a broad absorption band peaking at 690 nm. This fluorescence emission is present also in the Lhca4-N-47H mutant, which lacks the 733-nm emission band.