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A stable ‘sandwich’ system of Surface‐Enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering for the analysis of β‐carotenes in a photosynthetic pigment‐protein complex
Author(s) -
Qin Xiaochun,
Zhu Jiajia,
Wang Wenda,
Ding Xiang,
Wang Kebin,
Fang Yan,
Kuang Tingyun
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of raman spectroscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.748
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1097-4555
pISSN - 0377-0486
DOI - 10.1002/jrs.4333
Subject(s) - raman scattering , raman spectroscopy , silver nanoparticle , resonance (particle physics) , nanoparticle , chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , pigment , materials science , nanotechnology , optics , physics , atomic physics , chromatography , organic chemistry
In plants, Photosystem I (PSI) is composed of a core complex and a membrane‐associated antenna complex light‐harvesting complex I that captures light and funnels its energy to the core complex. To obtain Raman structural information on β‐carotenes embedded in the PSI core complex, a ‘sandwich’ system of roughened silver slice: target protein complexes: single silver nanoparticles was fabricated for Surface‐Enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering (SERRS) measurements. This study provided a method to overcome spectral irreproducibility, which is the main drawback of Surface‐Enhanced Raman Scattering/SERRS‐based studies. The Raman spectra of β‐carotenes embedded in the PSI core complex can be obtained at very low sample concentrations (1–5 µg Chl/ml) and high signal/noise ratios. The β‐carotenes in the spinach PSI core complex were predominantly all‐trans configuration. The membrane protein‐mediated adsorption of silver nanoparticles induced the uniform distribution of a large number of single nanoparticles, which contributed to achieving highly reproducible SERRS spectra. This study is the first to apply single silver nanoparticle‐based SERRS analysis in membrane proteins. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.