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. 2002 Sep;83(3):1701–1715. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(02)73938-6

Spectroscopy on individual light-harvesting 1 complexes of Rhodopseudomonas acidophila.

Martijn Ketelaars 1, Clemens Hofmann 1, Jürgen Köhler 1, Tina D Howard 1, Richard J Cogdell 1, Jan Schmidt 1, Thijs J Aartsma 1
PMCID: PMC1302266  PMID: 12202393

Abstract

In this paper the fluorescence-excitation spectra of individual LH1-RC complexes (Rhodopseudomonas acidophila) at 1.2 K are presented. All spectra show a limited number of broad bands with a characteristic polarization behavior, indicating that the excitations are delocalized over a large number of pigments. A significant variation in the number of bands, their bandwidths, and polarization behavior is observed. Only 30% of the spectra carry a clear signature of delocalized excited states of a circular structure of the pigments. The large spectral variety suggests that besides site heterogeneity also structural heterogeneity determines the optical spectrum of the individual LH1-RC complexes. Further research should reveal if such heterogeneity is a native property of the complex or induced during the experimental procedures.

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Selected References

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