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Science 21 January 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5708, pp. 433 - 436
DOI: 10.1126/science.1105833
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Reports

Carotenoid Cation Formation and the Regulation of Photosynthetic Light Harvesting

Nancy E. Holt,1,3* Donatas Zigmantas,1,3* Leonas Valkunas,1{dagger} Xiao-Ping Li,2 Krishna K. Niyogi,2,3 Graham R. Fleming1,3{ddagger}

Photosynthetic light harvesting in excess light is regulated by a process known as feedback deexcitation. Femtosecond transient absorption measurements on thylakoid membranes show selective formation of a carotenoid radical cation upon excitation of chlorophyll under conditions of maximum, steady-state feedback deexcitation. Studies on transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants confirmed that this carotenoid radical cation formation is correlated with feedback deexcitation and requires the presence of zeaxanthin, the specific carotenoid synthesized during high light exposure. These results indicate that energy transfer from chlorophyll molecules to a chlorophyllzeaxanthin heterodimer, which then undergoes charge separation, is the mechanism for excess energy dissipation during feedback deexcitation.

1 Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
2 Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
3 Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} Present address: Institute of Physics, Savanoriu 231, 02300 Vilnius, Lithuania, and Theoretical Department, Faculty of Physics, Vilnius University, Sauletekio Ave. 9, Building 3, 10222 Vilnius, Lithuania.

{ddagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: grfleming{at}lbl.gov

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