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Excitation energy transfer and trapping dynamics in the core complex of the filamentous photosynthetic bacterium Roseiflexus castenholzii

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Abstract

The light-harvesting core complex of the thermophilic filamentous anoxygenic phototrophic bacterium Roseiflexus castenholzii is intrinsic to the cytoplasmic membrane and intimately bound to the reaction center (RC). Using ultrafast transient absorption and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy with selective excitation, energy transfer, and trapping dynamics in the core complex have been investigated at room temperature in both open and closed RCs. Results presented in this report revealed that the excited energy transfer from the BChl 800 to the BChl 880 band of the antenna takes about 2 ps independent of the trapping by the RC. The time constants for excitation quenching in the core antenna BChl 880 by open and closed RCs were found to be 60 and 210 ps, respectively. Assuming that the light harvesting complex is generally similar to LH1 of purple bacteria, the possible structural and functional aspects of this unique antenna complex are discussed. The results show that the core complex of Roseiflexus castenholzii contains characteristics of both purple bacteria and Chloroflexus aurantiacus.

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Abbreviations

BChl:

Bacteriochlorophyll

Car:

Carotenoid

RC:

RC

LH:

Light-harvesting complex

fwhm:

Full width at half maximum

TCSPC:

Time-correlated single photon counting

EET:

Excitation energy transfer

FAP:

Filamentous anoxygenic photosynthetic

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Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Neal Woodbury from Arizona State University and Richard Loomis from Washington University in St. Louis for helpful discussions. The financial support is in part from DOE grant to REB (DE-FG02-10ER15902), and NSF grant to JP (MCB0642260).

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Author notes

  1. Aaron M. Collins

    Present address: Bioenergy and Defense Technology, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 87185, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Biology and Chemistry, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Yueyong Xin, Aaron M. Collins & Robert E. Blankenship

  2. College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 310036, China

    Yueyong Xin

  3. The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Jie Pan & Su Lin

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  1. Yueyong Xin
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Correspondence to Yueyong Xin or Robert E. Blankenship.

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Xin, Y., Pan, J., Collins, A.M. et al. Excitation energy transfer and trapping dynamics in the core complex of the filamentous photosynthetic bacterium Roseiflexus castenholzii . Photosynth Res 111, 149–156 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-011-9669-6

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