Role of the chlorophyll dimer in bacterial photosynthesis
- 1 June 1980
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 77 (6) , 3105-3109
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.77.6.3105
Abstract
The role of a special dimer (D) of bacteriochlorophyll molecules in bacterial photosynthesis was examined by calculations of the rates of electron transfer reactions in a system of the dimer and a bacteriopheophytin (BPh) molecule. The dependence of the potential sufaces of D on the distance between the monomers allows a fast light-induced electron transfer from D to BPh but only a slow back reaction (reduction of D+ by BPh-). The same potential surfaces allow efficient reduction of D+ by cytochrome c. Possible advantages of greatly different values of the electronic matrix elements for the forward and back reactions are pointed out. The electrostatic interaction between D+ and an ionized group of the protein might play an important role in the photosynthetic reaction.Keywords
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