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Open AccessReport10.2172/10180150

A photophysical control mechanism for zeaxanthin-associated radiationless energy dissipation in photosynthesis

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TL;DRAbstract

Understanding the way in which excess solar energy is dissipated by photosynthetic membranes under high light stress is a major problem in photosynthesis studies. This paper reports femtosecond time-resolved, fast-transient optical spectroscopic analyses of three important xanthophylls: violaxanthin, antheraxanthin, zeoaxanthin. The results support the notion that the enzymatic reactions that interconvert these xanthophylls act as a kind of ``molecular gear shift`` controlling whether the molecules function as light-harvesting pigments performing forward energy transfer or as fluorescence quenchers performing reverse energy transfer.

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Understanding the way in which excess solar energy is dissipated by photosynthetic membranes under high light stress is a major problem in photosynthesis studies. This paper reports femtosecond time-resolved, fast-transient optical spectroscopic analyses of three important xanthophylls: violaxanthin, antheraxanthin, zeoaxanthin. The results support the notion that the enzymatic reactions that interconvert these xanthophylls act as a kind of ``molecular gear shift`` controlling whether the molecules function as light-harvesting pigments performing forward energy transfer or as fluorescence quenchers performing reverse energy transfer.

Keywords

XanthophyllAntheraxanthinViolaxanthinZeaxanthinPhotosynthesisPhotochemistryFemtosecondChemistry

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