Photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes: fluorescent and absorption spectroscopy under two-photon (1200-1500 nm) and one-photon (600-750 nm) excitation by laser femtosecond pulses

Abstract

The pathways of excitation energy transfer (EET) via pigments of the light-harvesting antenna are still in discussion. The bacteriochlorophyll fluorescence of peripheral light-harvesting complexes (LH2) from purple bacteria can be observed upon two-photon excitation (TPE) within 1200-1500 nm spectral range (a broad band near 1300 nm). Earlier the occurrence of this band was taken as an evidence for the participation of "dark" carotenoid S₁ state in EET processes (see [<i>Walla et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97, 10808-10813 (2000)</i>] and references in it). However we showed that TPE spectrum of LH2 fluorescence within 1200-1500 nm is not associated with carotenoids [<i>Stepanenko et al., J. Phys. Chem. B. 113(34), 11720-11723 (2009)</i>]. Here we present TPE spectra of fluorescence for chromatophores and lightharvesting complexes LH2 and LH1 from wild-type cells and from carotenoid-depleted or carotenoidless mutant cells of several purple bacteria. The broad band within 1300-1400 nm was found for all preparations. Absorption pump-probe femtosecond spectroscopy applied to LH2 complex from <i>Rb. sphaeroides </i>revealed the similar spectral and kinetic patterns for TPE at 1350 nm and one-photon excitation at 675 nm. Analysis of pigment composition of this complex by high-pressure liquid chromatography showed that even under mild isolation conditions some bacteriochlorophyll molecules were oxidized to 3-acetyl-chlorophyll molecules having the long-wavelength absorption peak in the 650-700 nm range. It is proposed that these 3-acetyl-chlorophyll molecules are responsible for the broad band in TPE spectra within the 1200-1500 nm region.