Excited States of the Inactive and Active Forms of the Orange Carotenoid Protein

R. Berera, M.S. Gwizdala, I.H.M. van Stokkum, D. Kirilovsky, R. van Grondelle

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The orange carotenoid protein (OCP) is a crucial player in the process of nonphotochemical quenching in a large number of cyanobacteria. This water-soluble protein binds one pigment only, the keto carotenoid 3′-hydroxyechinenone, and needs to be photoactivated by strong (blue-green) light in order to induce energy dissipation within or from the phycobilisome, the main light harvesting system of these organisms. We performed transient-absorption spectroscopy on OCP samples frozen in the inactive and active forms at 77 K. By making use of target analysis we determined the excited state properties of the active form. Our results show that OCP photoactivation modifies the carotenoid excited state energy landscape. More specifically the photoactivated OCP is characterized by one state with predominantly ICT character (ICT/S
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9121-9128
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry B
Volume117
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

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