Architecture and mechanism of the light-harvesting apparatus of purple bacteria Article (Web of Science)

abstract

  • Photosynthetic organisms fuel their metabolism with light energy and have developed for this purpose an efficient apparatus for harvesting sunlight. The atomic structure of the apparatus, as it evolved in purple bacteria, has been constructed through a combination of x-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, and modeling. The detailed structure and overall architecture reveals a hierarchical aggregate of pigments that utilizes, as shown through femtosecond spectroscopy and quantum physics, elegant and efficient mechanisms for primary light absorption and transfer of electronic excitation toward the photosynthetic reaction center.

authors

  • Hu, Xiche
  • Damjanović, Ana
  • Ritz, Thorsten
  • Schulten, Klaus

publication date

  • 1998

number of pages

  • 6

start page

  • 5935

end page

  • 5941

volume

  • 95

issue

  • 11