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Polarised Raman measurements on the core complex of crystallised photosystem II
Author(s) -
Brose Katharina,
Zouni Athina,
Broser Matthias,
Müh Frank,
Maultzsch Janina
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.200982348
Subject(s) - photosystem ii , raman spectroscopy , photosystem i , molecule , chemistry , photosynthesis , photochemistry , carotene , spectroscopy , materials science , crystallography , chemical physics , physics , optics , astronomy , biochemistry , organic chemistry
In photosynthesis the sunlight is collected by antenna pigments and transmitted to special molecule structures called photosystem I (PS I) and photosystem II (PS II), where the energy of light is transformed into a separation of charge. In the PS II reaction centre (RC), there are two β‐carotene molecules Car D 1 and Car D 2 , which are oriented perpendicular to each other. The role of these molecules in the photosynthesis process is still unknown. We use Raman spectroscopy to study the two β‐carotenes. We present polarised Raman measurements of the β‐carotene vibrational modes in single crystals of photosystem II (PS II) and discuss the possible origin of the observed polarisation dependence. These measurements are important for the basic understanding of the β‐carotene vibrational properties and guide future investigations of PS II.