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Ultrafast energy transfer pathways in R-phycoerythrin from Polysiphonia urceolata

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Abstract

Energy transfer (ET) processes between chromophores in R-phycoerythrin (R-PE) from Polysiphonia urceolata were studied by use of ultrafast spectroscopic methods. Several primary ET pathways were elaborated. A fluorescence decay component with a time constant of several hundred picoseconds observed by streak camera is tentatively assigned to the reversible formation of exciton traps between α84 and β84 pigment pairs. In order to investigate much faster ET processes in R-PE, a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier based femtosecond time-resolved transient fluorescence spectrometer was employed. The results reveal that the ET between α84 and β84 pigment pair has a time constant of 1–2 ps; the energy migration between α84 and β84 pairs within the R-PE trimer has a time constant of 30–40 ps. We also demonstrated an ET process from phycourobilin to phycoerythrobilin with a time constant as fast as 2.5–3.0 ps, which was directly observed in fluorescence kinetics by selective excitation of the phycourobilin molecules acting as the energy donor.

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Abbreviations

PE:

Phycoerythrin

PC:

Phycocyanin

APC:

Allophycocyanin

PBS:

Phycobilisomes

ET:

Energy transfer

R-PE:

R-phycoerythrin

PUB:

Phycourobilin

PEB:

Phycoerythrobilin

NOPA:

Noncollinear optical parametric amplifier

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Acknowledgment

We thank Dr. Yishi Wu in the Institute of Chemistry, CAS for help in fluorescence measurement with streak camera. This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under the grants 20925313 and 60438020, National Basic Research Program of China 2009CB929404, Chinese Academy of Sciences Innovation Program (KJCX2-YW-W25).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Soft Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijng, 100190, China

    Hailong Chen, Wei Dang & Yuxiang Weng

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Laboratory of Photochemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Jie Xie & Jingquan Zhao

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  1. Hailong Chen
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  2. Wei Dang
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  3. Jie Xie
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  4. Jingquan Zhao
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  5. Yuxiang Weng
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Correspondence to Yuxiang Weng.

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Chen, H., Dang, W., Xie, J. et al. Ultrafast energy transfer pathways in R-phycoerythrin from Polysiphonia urceolata . Photosynth Res 111, 81–86 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-011-9708-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-011-9708-3

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