Photosystem energy transfer

Mullineaux, C. W. (1992). Excitation energy transfer from phycobilisomes to photosystem-I in a cyanobacterium. Biochim Biophys Acta 1100(3) 285-292. 

Jennings, R. C., Zucchelli, G., and Bassi, R. Antenna Structure and Energy Transfer in Higher Plant Photosystems. 177, 147-182 (1996). 

Antenna Structure and Energy Transfer in Higher Plant Photosystems... 

A, Absorption chi, chlorophyll car, carotenoid EET, excitonic energy transfer EF, exoplasmic fracture face EM, electron microscopy FWHM, full width at half maximum lEF, Isoelectric Focusing, LD, linear dichroism LHC, light harvesting complex PAGE, polyacrylamide gel electophoresis PF, protoplasmic fracture face PS, photosystem RC, reaction centre SDS, sodium dodecyl sulphate SSTT, single step transfer time. 

Nowadays, most reaction center models carry suitable antenna pigments and acceptor groups and in effect are photosystem models. A typical example for a state-of-the-art system that incorporates many aspects of a photosystem consisted of a boron dipyrrin covalently linked to a zinc(II) porphyrin, which carried a suitably modified C60 derivative as axial ligand. Selective excitation of the boron dipyrrin as antenna pigment resulted in energy transfer to a zinc(II) porphyrin followed by electron transfer to the acceptor109. 

In the overall scheme of the photosynthesis of green plants the electron transport cycle starts with the excitation of chlorophyll a in photosystem 2. The excited electron then follows a downward electron acceptor chain which eventually reaches the chlorophyll a of photosystem 1 (P700) in which it can fill the positive hole left by electronic excitation. The energy released in the electron transport chain which links photosystems 2 and 1 is used for other biochemical processes which are thereby related to photosynthesis. One of these is the process of photophosphorylation which is the production of molecules with phosphate chains used as energy transfer agents in many biochemical reactions. 

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