Triplet-triplet energy transfer in artificial and natural photosynthetic antennas.

In photosynthetic organisms, protection against photooxidative stress due to singlet oxygen is provided by carotenoid molecules, which quench chlorophyll triplet species before they can sensitize singlet oxygen formation. In anoxygenic photosynthetic organisms, in which exposure to oxygen is low, chlorophyll-to-carotenoid triplet-triplet energy transfer (T-TET) is slow, in the tens of nanoseconds range, whereas it is ultrafast in the oxygen-rich chloroplasts of oxygen-evolving photosynthetic organisms. To better understand the structural features and resulting electronic coupling that leads to T-TET dynamics adapted to ambient oxygen activity, we have carried out experimental and theoretical studies of two isomeric carotenoporphyrin molecular dyads having different conformations and therefore different interchromophore electronic interactions. This pair of dyads reproduces the characteristics of fast and slow T-TET, including a resonance Raman-based spectroscopic marker of strong electronic coupling and fast T-TET that has been observed in photosynthesis. As identified by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the spectroscopic marker associated with fast T-TET is due primarily to a geometrical perturbation of the carotenoid backbone in the triplet state induced by the interchromophore interaction. This is also the case for the natural systems, as demonstrated by the hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) simulations of light-harvesting proteins from oxygenic (LHCII) and anoxygenic organisms (LH2). Both DFT and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analyses further indicate that, upon T-TET, the triplet wave function is localized on the carotenoid in both dyads.

Twisting a ß-Carotene, an Adaptive Trick from Nature for Dissipating Energy during Photoprotection.

Cyanobacteria possess a family of one-helix high light-inducible proteins (Hlips) that are homologous to light-harvesting antenna of plants and algae. An Hlip protein, high light-inducible protein D (HliD) purified as a small complex with the Ycf39 protein is evaluated using resonance Raman spectroscopy. We show that the HliD binds two different ß-carotenes, each present in two non-equivalent binding pockets with different conformations, having their (0,0) absorption maxima at 489 and 522 nm, respectively. Both populations of ß-carotene molecules were in all-trans configuration and the absorption position of the farthest blue-shifted ß-carotene was attributed entirely to the polarizability of the environment in its binding pocket. In contrast, the absorption maximum of the red-shifted ß-carotene was attributed to two different factors: the polarizability of the environment in its binding pocket and, more importantly, to the conformation of its ß-rings. This second ß-carotene has highly twisted ß-rings adopting a flat conformation, which implies that the effective conjugation length N is extended up to 10.5 modifying the energetic levels. This increase in N will also result in a lower S1 energy state, which may provide a permanent energy dissipation channel. Analysis of the carbonyl stretching region for chlorophyll a excitations indicates that the HliD binds six chlorophyll a molecules in five non-equivalent binding sites, with at least one chlorophyll a presenting a slight distortion to its macrocycle. The binding modes and conformations of HliD-bound pigments are discussed with respect to the known structures of LHCII and CP29.

Probing the pigment binding sites in LHCII with resonance Raman spectroscopy: The effect of mutations at S123.

Resonance Raman spectroscopy was used to evaluate the structure of light-harvesting chlorophyll (Chl) a/b complexes of photosystem II (LHCII), reconstituted from wild-type (WT) and mutant apoproteins over-expressed in Escherichia coli. The point mutations involved residue S123, exchanged for either P (S123P) or G (S123G). In all reconstituted proteins, lutein 2 displayed a distorted conformation, as it does in purified LHCII trimers. Reconstituted WT and S123G also exhibited a conformation of bound neoxanthin (Nx) molecules identical to the native protein, while the S123P mutation was found to induce a change in Nx conformation. This structural change of neoxanthin is accompanied by a blue shift of the absorption of this carotenoid molecule. The interactions assumed by (and thus the structure of the binding sites of) the bound Chls b were found identical in all the reconstituted proteins, and only marginally perturbed as compared to purified LHCII. The interactions assumed by bound Chls a were also identical in purified LHCII and the reconstituted WT. However, the keto carbonyl group of one Chl a, originally free-from-interactions in WT LHCII, becomes involved in a strong H-bond with its environment in LHCII reconstituted from the S123P apoprotein. As the absorption in the Qy region of this protein is identical to that of the LHCII reconstituted from the WT apoprotein, we conclude that the interaction state of the keto carbonyl of Chl a does not play a significant role in tuning the binding site energy of these molecules.

Echinenone vibrational properties: From solvents to the orange carotenoid protein.

Orange carotenoid protein (OCP) is a cyanobacterial photoactive protein which binds echinenone as a chromophore; it is involved in photoprotection of these photosynthetic organisms against intense illumination. In its resting state, OCP appears orange (OCPo), and turns into a red form (OCPr) when exposed to blue-green light. Here we have combined resonance Raman spectroscopy and molecular modeling to investigate the mechanisms underlying the electronic absorption properties of the different forms of OCP. Our results show that there are at least two carotenoid configurations in the OCPo, suggesting that it is quite flexible, and that the OCPo to OCPr transition must involve an increase of the apparent conjugation length of the bound echinenone. Resonance Raman indicates that this chromophore must be in an all-trans configuration in OCPo. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations, in agreement with the Raman spectra of both OCP forms, show that the OCPo to OCPr transition must involve either an echinenone s-cis to s-trans isomerization which would affect the position of its conjugated end-chain rings, or a bending of the echinenone rings which would bring them from out of the plane of the CC conjugated plane in the OCPo form into the CC plane in the OCPr form.

Resonance Raman spectra of carotenoid molecules: influence of methyl substitutions.

We report here the resonance Raman spectra and the quantum chemical calculations of the Raman spectra for ß-carotene and 13,13'-diphenyl-ß-carotene. The first aim of this approach was to test the robustness of the method used for modeling ß-carotene, and assess whether it could accurately predict the vibrational properties of derivatives in which conjugated substituents had been introduced. DFT calculations, using the B3LYP functional in combination with the 6-311G(d,p) basis set, were able to accurately predict the influence of two phenyl substituents connected to the ß-carotene molecule, although these deeply perturb the vibrational modes. This experimentally validated modeling technique leads to a fine understanding of the origin of the carotenoid resonance Raman bands, which are widely used for assessing the properties of these molecules, and in particular in complex media, such as binding sites provided by biological macromolecules.

Fermi resonance as a tool for probing peridinin environment.

In the present paper, we provide an extended study of the vibrational signature of a butenolide carotenoid, peridinin, in various solvents by combining resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) with theoretical calculations. The presence of a Fermi resonance due to coupling between the lactonic C═O stretching and the overtone of the wagging of the C-H in the lactonic ring provides a spectroscopic way of differentiating between peridinins lying in different environments. This is a significant achievement, given that simultaneous presence of several peridinins (each with a peculiar photophysical role) in different environments occurs in the most important peridinin containing proteins, the peridinin-chlorophyll proteins (PCPs) and the Chl a-c2-peridinin binding proteins. In RRS, small modifications of solvent polarity can give rise to large differences in the intensity and splitting between the two bands, resulting from the Fermi resonance. By changing the polarity, we can tune the frequency of stretching of the C═O and, while the C-H wagging frequency is almost always constant in different solvents, move the system from a perfect resonance condition to off-resonance ones. We have corroborated our spectroscopic findings with a quasi-classical dynamical model of two coupled oscillators, and DFT calculations on peridinin in different solvents; we have also used calculations to complete the peridinin vibrational mode assignments in the 800-1600 cm(-1) region of RRS spectra, corresponding to polyene chain motion. Finally, the presence of Fermi resonance has been used to reinterpret previous vibrational spectroscopic experiments in PCPs.

First combined in vivo X-ray tomography and high-resolution molecular electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) imaging of the mouse knee joint taking into account the disappearance kinetics of the EPR probe.

Although laboratory data clearly suggest a role for oxidants (dioxygen and free radicals derived from dioxygen) in the pathogenesis of many age-related and degenerative diseases (such as arthrosis and arthritis), methods to image such species in vivo are still very limited. This methodological problem limits physiopathologic studies about the role of those species in vivo, the effects of their regulation using various drugs, and the evaluation of their levels for diagnosis of degenerative diseases. In vivo electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) imaging and spectroscopy are unique, noninvasive methods used to specifically detect and quantify paramagnetic species. However, two problems limit their application: the anatomic location of the EPR image in the animal body and the relative instability of the EPR probes. Our aim is to use EPR imaging to obtain physiologic and pathologic information on the mouse knee joint. This article reports the first in vivo EPR image of a small tissue, the mouse knee joint, with good resolution (≈ 160 µm) after intra-articular injection of a triarylmethyl radical EPR probe. It was obtained by combining EPR and x-ray micro-computed tomography for the first time and by taking into account the disappearance kinetics of the EPR probe during image acquisition to reconstruct the image. This multidisciplinary approach opens the way to high-resolution EPR imaging and local metabolism studies of radical species in vivo in different physiologic and pathologic situations.