Photochemistry beyond the red limit in chlorophyll f-containing photosystems

We present biophysical studies on the photosystems from a cyanobacterium grown in far-red light (750 nm). The few long-wavelength chlorophylls present are well resolved from each other and from the majority pigment, chlorophyll a. Charge separation in photosystem I and II uses chlorophyll f at 745 nm and chlorophyll f (or d) at 727 nm, respectively. Each photosystem has a few even longer-wavelength chlorophylls f that collect light and pass excitation energy uphill to the photochemically active pigments. These photosystems function beyond the red limit using far-red pigments in only a few key positions.

Source: ScienceNOW - June 14, 2018 Category: Science Authors: Nürnberg, D. J., Morton, J., Santabarbara, S., Telfer, A., Joliot, P., Antonaru, L. A., Ruban, A. V., Cardona, T., Krausz, E., Boussac, A., Fantuzzi, A., Rutherford, A. W. Tags: Biochemistry reports Source Type: news