Probing functional (re)organisation in photosynthesis by time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy

Abstract

Summary The possible mechanisms for reorganisation of outer LHCs of PSII (LHCII) upon state transitions in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii have been discussed for several decades [38, 43-54]. For a long time people adhered to the opinion that upon the transition from state 1 to state 2, 80% of LHCII detaches from PSII and attaches completely to PSI in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii [38, 45]. This thesis provides new insights for the mechanism of state transitions in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In the remainder of this thesis, the role of minor light-harvesting complexes in excitation energy transfer to reaction centers of photosystem II are discussed as well as multiexciton dynamics of the alloyed ZnCdTe quantum dots are studied in detail. In chapter 2, we demonstrate with picosecond-fluorescence spectroscopy on C. reinhardtii cells that although LHCs indeed detach from Photosystem II in state-2 conditions only a fraction attaches to Photosystem I. The detached antenna complexes become protected against photodamage via shortening of the excited-state lifetime. It is discussed how the transition from state 1 to state 2 can protect C. reinhardtii in high-light conditions and how this differs from the situation in plants. In chapter 3, we study the picosecond fluorescence properties of Chlamydomonas reinhardtti over a broad range of wavelengths at 77K. It is observed that upon going from state 1 (relatively high 680nm/720nm fluorescence ratio) to state 2 (low ratio), a large part of the fluorescence of LHC/PSII becomes substantially quenched, probably because of LHC detachment from PSII, whereas the fluorescence of PSI hardly changes. These results are in agreement with the proposal in chapter 2 that the amount of LHC moving from PSII to PSI upon going from state 1 to state 2 is very limited. In chapter 4, we used picosecond-fluorescence spectroscopy to study excitation-energy transfer (EET) in thylakoids membranes isolated from A. thaliana wild-type plants and knockout lines depleted of either two (koCP26/24 and koCP29/24) or all minor Lhcs (NoM). In the absence of all minor Lhcs, the functional connection of LHCII to the PSII cores appears to be seriously impaired whereas the “disconnected” LHCII is substantially quenched. For both double knock-out mutants, excitation trapping in PSII is faster than in NoM thylakoids but slower than in WT thylakoids. In NoM thylakoids, the loss of all minor Lhcs is accompanied by an over-accumulation of LHCII, suggesting a compensating response to the reduced trapping efficiency in limiting light, which leads to a photosynthetic phenotype resembling that of low-light-acclimated plants. Finally, fluorescence kinetics and biochemical results show that the missing minor complexes are not replaced by other Lhcs, implying that they are unique among the antenna subunits and crucial for the functioning and macro-organization of PSII. In chapter 5, we have performed picosecond fluorescence measurements on ZnCdTe ternary quantum dots at room temperature by using a streak-camera setup in order to investigate in detail the fluorescence kinetics for ZnCdTe quantum dots with different size and structure by using different excitation laser intensities. Our data show that the changes in fluorescence kinetics are mostly related to the changes in structure and size. In heterogeneous structured ZnCdTe quantum dots, the fluorescence kinetics become faster as compared to homogeneous structured ZnCdTe quantum dots. Also, in both homogeneous and heterogeneous ZnCdTe quantum dots, a new peak is observed in the high-energy region of the emission spectrum when using high excitation intensities, which shows that the radiative processes that occur from higher energy states become more favoured as the excitation intensity increases.</p