SPECTRAL-KINETIC CHARACTERISTICS OF PYRENE FLUORESCENCE IN MODEL SYSTEMS AND MEMBRANES OF ETIOPLASTS

Abstract

The decay kinetics parameters of monomer and excimer fluorescence of pyrene in artificial galactolipid protein-free micelles and membranes of prolamellar bodies (PLB) of etioplasts have been determined. A complex law of probe fluorescence decay in artificial and native membranes has been discovered. It has been found that the addition of protochlorophyllide (Pd) to lipid micelles led to a considerable reduction in the lifetime of the long-lived component of the fluorescence-decay kinetics of the monomer form of pyrene (τ2) and to the appearance of luminescence in the region of 640 nm in the stationary spectra of fluorescence at excitation of the pyrene molecules present in the bilayer. In native membranes of etioplasts, the monomer duration τ2 did not depend on the pigment content and the Pd fluorescence upon excitation through pyrene was absent. The membranes of etioplasts and the pigment-containing artificial micelles did not differ in the τ2 value of the excimer. They only differed in the contribution of the long-lived component to the total fluorescence (low in native membranes). The pigment-protein interaction in the etioplast membranes and the absence from them of pigment directly associated with lipids are discussed.