Light Energy Driven Nanocommunications With FRET in Photosynthetic Systems

Energy Transfer and Photosynthetic Light Harvesting

Light-driven regulatory mechanisms in the photosynthetic antenna complex LHCII.

Protection against strong-light-induced photodamage of the photosynthetic apparatus and entire organisms is a vital activity in plants and is also realized at the molecular level of the antenna complexes. Reported recently, the regulatory mechanisms which operate in the largest plant antenna complex, LHCII (light-harvesting complex II), based on light-driven processes, are briefly reviewed and ...

Modeling light-driven proton pumps in artificial photosynthetic reaction centers.

We study a model of a light-induced proton pump in artificial reaction centers. The model contains a molecular triad with four electron states (i.e., one donor state, two photosensitive group states, and one acceptor state) as well as a molecular shuttle having one electron and one proton-binding sites. The shuttle diffuses between the sides of the membrane and translocates protons energeticall...

Femtosecond spectroscopy of photosynthetic light-harvesting systems.

Observing the elementary steps of light-harvesting in real time is now possible using femtosecond spectroscopy. This, combined with new structural data, has allowed a fairly complete description of light-harvesting in purple bacteria and substantial insights into higher plant antenna systems.

FRET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer) sheds light on transcription.

The complex organization of the transcription machinery has been revealed mainly by biochemical and crystallographic studies. X-ray structures describe RNA polymerases and transcription complexes on an atomic level, but fail to portray their dynamic nature. The use of fluorescence techniques has made it possible to add a new layer of information to our understanding of transcription by providin...