Excitation energy transfer in individual light-harvesting chlorosome from green photosynthetic bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus at cryogenic temperature

Abstract

The excitation energy transfer from bacteriochlorophyll(BChl)- c self-aggregates to energy-accepting BChl- a in proteins (baseplates) in an individual photosynthetic light-harvesting complex (chlorosome) of a green filamentous photosynthetic bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus was successfully observed at cryogenic temperature. The ratio of intensity of the fluorescence peak of BChl- a to that of BChl- c self-aggregates in individual chlorosomes, which demonstrated relative efficiency of the excitation energy transfer, was heterogeneous between 0.09 and 0.72. This suggests that excitonic interaction between BChl- c self-aggregates and BChl- a in baseplates was heterogeneous among individual chlorosomes.