Optical transitions in the light-harvesting complexes of bacterial photosynthetic centers

Abstract

The geometric parameters of the model structure of the bacterial photosynthetic center, which consists of a light-harvesting antenna complex, a reaction center, lipid layers, and the solvation shells of water molecules, were optimized using quantum mechanics-molecular mechanics (QM/MM). The optical absorption spectra of the bacteriochlorophyll were evaluated in the quantum subsystem. It was shown that the shift of the absorption bands towards longer wavelengths as compared to the spectrum of the individual bacteriochlorophyll molecules is characteristic of the cluster of pigment molecules that are found in the antennas.