From the study of Den Hartog et al. (1998b), we conclude that the Selleck BAY 11-7082 combination of HB and FLN experiments prove to be very powerful in unravelling spectral distributions of ‘traps’ for energy transfer in large photosynthetic complexes at liquid-helium temperatures, such as in CP47–RC, CP47 and the RC of PSII of green plants. Lowest k = 0 exciton states in the B850 band of light-harvesting

2 complexes of purple bacteria We know, from X-ray crystallography, that the B850 ring of the LH2 complex of Rps. acidophila consists of 18 close-lying BChl a molecules that are at GW3965 in vitro distances of less than 1 nm from each other (McDermott et al. 1995; Papiz et al. 2003). Similar distances have been found within the B850 ring of Rs. molischianum (Koepke et al. 1996) and have been implied for Rb. sphaeroides from cryoelectron microscopy (Walz et al. 1998). Such short distances lead to strong electronic interactions of a few 100 cm−1 and thus to delocalization of the excitation energy

and the formation of coherent exciton states (Alden et al. 1997; Dahlbom et al. 2001; Freiberg et al. 1999; Hu et al. 1997, 2002; Krueger et al. 1998; Linnanto et al. 1999; Novoderezhkin et al. 1999, 2003; Sauer et al. 1996; Scholes selleck chemicals llc and Fleming 2000; Scholes et al. 1999; Sundström et al. 1999; Wu et al. 1997b; Zazubovich et al. 2002b). The intensity of the B850 absorption band originates principally from two degenerate components of the excitation manifold, the k = ±1 (‘allowed’) states, labelled according to the assumed change in (pseudo) angular momentum. For a perfectly circular B850 ring, the excitation energy is delocalized over all 18 BChl a molecules and

the lowest k = 0 exciton state is forbidden. Any deviation from this ideal situation, such as disorder, will localize the excitation energy over fewer BChl a molecules, allowing k = 0 to become (somewhat) radiative (Cheng and Silbey 2006; Freiberg et al. 1999, 2003; Hofmann et al. 2004; Jang and Silbey 2003; Jang et al. 2001; Novoderezhkin et al. 1999, 2003; Van Oijen et al. 1999; Wu et al. 1997a, b, c). The 2-hydroxyphytanoyl-CoA lyase relative intensity of k = 0 with respect to that of k = ±1 is thus a measure of the extent of disorder in the B850 ring. The degree of excitation-energy delocalization, which is limited by static and dynamic disorder, however, remains a subject of debate. Although the majority of the calculations are based on disordered Frenkel-exciton models (for reviews, see Cogdell et al. 2006; Hu et al. 2002; Jang et al. 2001; Scholes and Fleming 2000; Van Grondelle and Novoderezhkin 2006), an alternative polaron description leading to self-trapped excitons has been put forward by Freiberg and co-workers (Freiberg and Trinkunas 2009; Freiberg et al. 2009).