Correlated AFM-Spectroscopy Imaging of Linear Light Harvesting Protein Aggregates in Bacterial Native Photosynthetic Membrane

Abstract

How light energy is harvested in a natural photosynthetic membrane through energy transfer is closely related to the stoichiometry and arrangement of light harvesting antenna proteins in the membrane. The specific photosynthetic architecture facilitates a rapid and efficient energy transfer among the light harvesting proteins (LH2 and LH1) and to the reaction center. Here we report the identification of linear aggregates of light harvesting proteins, LH2, in the photosynthetic membranes under ambient conditions by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging and spectroscopic analysis. Our results suggest that the light harvesting proteins, LH2, can exist as linear aggregates of 2 to 8 proteins in the photosynthetic membranes, and the protein distributions are highly heterogeneous. LH2 antenna proteins are responsible for absorbing most of the light energy for photosynthesis, and efficient intra- and inter-molecular energy transfers of LH2 complexes are important for the overall efficiency of the light harvesting mechanism. We combined AFM imaging and spectroscopic analysis with J aggregate theoretical calculations to characterize the linear aggregation of LH2. AFM images reveal the linear aggregation of LH2, where the LH2 complexes are tilted to the plane of the photosynthetic membrane. The spectroscopic results support the attribution of LH2 complexes in the membrane to linear aggregates. The calculated values for the absorption, emission and lifetime using a model developed from J aggregate theory are consistent with the experimentally determined spectroscopic values, further proving a J type aggregation of the LH2 complexes in the photosynthetic membrane.