Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Biophysical Journal logoLink to Biophysical Journal
. 1979 Mar;25(3):513–533. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(79)85320-5

Analysis of picosecond laser induced fluorescence phenomena in photosynthetic membranes utilizing a master equation approach.

G Paillotin, C E Swenberg, J Breton, N E Geacintov
PMCID: PMC1328488  PMID: 262402

Abstract

A Pauli master equation is formulated and solved to describe the fluorescence quantum yield, phi, and the fluorescence temporal decay curves. F(t), obtained in picosecond laser excitation experiments of photosynthetic systems. It is assumed that the lowering of phi with increasing pulse intensity is due to bimolecular singlet exciton annihilation processes which compete with the monomolecular exciton decay processes; Poisson statistics are taken into account. Calculated curves of phi as a function of the number of photon hits per domain are compared with experimental data, and it is concluded that these domains contain at least two to four connected photosynthetic units (depending on the temperature), where each photosynthetic unit is assumed to contain approximately 300 pigment molecules. It is shown that under conditions of high excitation intensities, the fluorescence decays approximately according to the (time)1/2 law.

Full text

PDF
513

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Barber J., Searle G. F., Tredwell C. J. Picosecond time-resolved study of MgCl2-induced chlorophyll fluorescence yield changes from chloroplasts. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1978 Feb 9;501(2):174–182. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(78)90024-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Beddard G. S., Porter G. Excited state annihilation in the photosynthetic unit. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1977 Oct 12;462(1):63–72. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(77)90189-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Breton J., Geacintov N. E. Quenching of fluorescence of chlorophyll in vivo by long-lived excited states. FEBS Lett. 1976 Oct 15;69(1):86–89. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(76)80659-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Campillo A. J., Hyer R. C., Monger T. G., Parson W. W., Shapiro S. L. Light collection and harvesting processes in bacterial photosynthesis investigated on a picosecond time scale. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 May;74(5):1997–2001. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.5.1997. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Campillo A. J., Kollman V. H., Shapiro S. L. Intensity Dependence of the Fluorescence Lifetime of in vivo Chlorophyll Excited by a Picosecond Light Pulse. Science. 1976 Jul 16;193(4249):227–229. doi: 10.1126/science.193.4249.227. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Campillo A. J., Shapiro S. L., Kollman V. H., Winn K. R., Hyer R. C. Picosecond exciton annihilation in photosynthetic systems. Biophys J. 1976 Jan;16(1):93–97. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(76)85666-4. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Geacintov N. E., Breton J. Exciton annihilation in the two photosystems in chloroplasts at 100 degrees K. Biophys J. 1977 Jan;17(1):1–15. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(77)85623-3. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Geacintov N. E., Breton J., Swenberg C., Campillo A. J., Hyer R. C., Shapiro S. L. Picosecond and microsecond pulse laser studies of exciton quenching and exciton distribution in spinach chloroplasts at low temperatures. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1977 Aug 10;461(2):306–312. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(77)90180-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Harris L., Porter G., Synowiec J. A., Tredwell C. J., Barber J. Fluorescence lifetimes of Chlorella pyrenoidosa. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1976 Dec 6;449(3):329–339. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(76)90145-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. JOLIOT A., JOLIOT P. ETUDE CIN'ETIQUE DE LA R'EACTION PHOTOCHIMIQUE LIB'ERANT L'OXYG'ENE AU COURS DE LA PHOTOSYNTH'ESE. C R Hebd Seances Acad Sci. 1964 May 4;258:4622–4625. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Joliot P., Bennoun P., Joliot A. New evidence supporting energy transfer between photosynthetic units. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1973 May 30;305(2):317–328. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(73)90179-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Mauzerall D. Multiple excitations in photosynthetic systems. Biophys J. 1976 Jan;16(1):87–91. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(76)85665-2. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Paillotin G. Capture frequency of excitations and energy transfer between photosynthetic units in the photosystem II. J Theor Biol. 1976 May 7;58(1):219–235. doi: 10.1016/0022-5193(76)90149-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Paillotin G. Transport and capture of electronic excitation energy in the photosynthetic apparatus. J Theor Biol. 1972 Aug;36(2):223–235. doi: 10.1016/0022-5193(72)90094-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Pearlstein R. M. Migration and trapping of excitation quanta in photosynthetic units. Brookhaven Symp Biol. 1966;19:8–15. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Porter G., Synowiec J. A., Tredwell C. J. Intensity effects on the fluorescence of in vivo chlorophyll. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1977 Mar 11;459(3):329–336. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(77)90034-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Robinson G. W. Excitation transfer and trapping in photosynthesis. Brookhaven Symp Biol. 1966;19:16–48. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Searle G. F., Barber J., Harris L., Porter G., Tredwell C. J. Picosecond laser study of fluorescence lifetimes in spinach chloroplast photosytem I and photosystem II preparations. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1977 Mar 11;459(3):390–401. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(77)90040-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Swenberg C. E., Geacintov N. E., Pope M. Bimolecular quenching of excitons and fluorescence in the photosynthetic unit. Biophys J. 1976 Dec;16(12):1447–1452. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(76)85786-4. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Biophysical Journal are provided here courtesy of The Biophysical Society

RESOURCES