The Protein’s Role in Triplet Energy Transfer in Bacterial Reaction Centers

Abstract

When photosynthetic organisms are subjected to high-light conditions in nature, electron transfer becomes blocked as the rate of conversion of light into charge-separated states in the reaction center (RC) exceeds the capacity of the soluble carriers involved in cyclic electron transfer. In that event, a well-characterized T{sub 0}-polarized triplet state {sup T}P, is formed on the primary donor, P, from the P{sup +}H{sub A}{sup {minus}} state (reviewed in [1]). In an aerobic or semi-aerobic environment, the major role of the carotenoid (C), also bound by the RC, is to quench {sup T}P prior to its sensitization of the {sup 1}{Delta}{sub g} singlet state of oxygen--a potentially damaging biological oxidant. The carotenoid performs this function efficiently in most bacterial RCs by rapidly accepting the triplet state from P and dissipating this excited-state energy into heat through internal conversion. The lowest-lying triplet states of P and the carotenoid are sufficiently different that {sup T}P can promote oxygen to its excited singlet state whereas {sup T}C can quench the {sup T}P state (reviewed in [2]).