Quantum effects in photosynthesis

Abstract

In photosynthesis light is absorbed by the light-harvesting antenna and within several tens of picoseconds transferred to the photosynthetic reaction center (RC) where an ultrafast charge separation is initiated. Photosynthetic purple bacteria employ a single reaction center. In contrast, in photosynthesis of plants, algae and cyanobacteria, two reaction centers, Photosystem II (PSII) and Photosystem I (PSI), operate in series. PSII uses light to extract electrons from water (to produce oxygen); PSI uses light to reduce NADP+to NADPH. The electron transfer from PSII to PSI is coupled to the build-up of a proton motive force (pmf) that is used to form ATP. NADPH and ATP are required in the Calvin-Benson cycle to produce a reduced sugar. In the following we will discuss photosynthetic charge separation and photosynthetic light-harvesting with an emphasis on the role of quantum mechanics.