Mechanism of Triplet Energy Transfer in Photosynthetic Bacterial Reaction Centers.

In purple bacterial reaction centers, triplet excitation energy transfer occurs from the primary donor P, a bacteriochlorophyll dimer, to a neighboring carotenoid to prevent photodamage from the generation of reactive oxygen species. The B bacteriochlorophyll molecule that lies between P and the carotenoid on the inactive electron transfer branch is involved in triplet energy transfer between P and the carotenoid. To expand the high-resolution spectral and kinetic information available for describing the mechanism, we investigated the triplet excited state formation and energy transfer pathways in the reaction center of Rhodobacter sphaeroides using pump-probe transient absorption spectroscopy over a broad spectral region on the nanosecond to microsecond time scale at both room temperature and at 77 K.