Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

PHOTOSYNTHETIC LIGHT HARVESTING

Facing the fluctuations

Nature Chemistry volume 14, pages 121–123 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Despite the disordered and dynamic environment in which it occurs, photosynthetic light harvesting is highly efficient. Now, measurements of energy transfer in single photosynthetic antennae show how these structures deal with protein fluctuations, robustly transferring the energy before it is lost.

In contrast to silicon-based solar technology, photosynthetic light harvesting takes place in a highly disordered environment of ever fluctuating pigment–protein antenna complexes and yet, under favourable conditions, nearly every absorbed photon leads to charge separation1. After light is absorbed by the pigments in the antenna, the associated excitation energy is transferred to a reaction centre, driven by a local energy gradient and electronic coupling of the pigments involved. On the face of it, dynamic disorder seems to be a problem because the protein tunes both the excited-state energy and the mutual arrangement of the pigments1. The protein thermal fluctuations could thus disrupt the transfer pathways and form local traps, so why the complexes function so efficiently and robustly is not entirely clear.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Single-molecule two-pulse spectroscopy observes energy transfer.

References

  1. Mirkovic, T. et al. Chem. Rev. 117, 249–293 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Scholes, G. D. & Fleming, G. R. in Adventures in Chemical Physics Vol 132 (eds Berry, R. S., Jortner, J. & Rice, S. A.) 57–129 (Wiley, 2006).

  3. Moya, R., Norris, A. C., Kondo, T. & Schlau-Cohen, G. S. Nat. Chem. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-021-00841-9 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. van Dijk, E. M. H. P., Hernando, J., Garcíja-Parajó, M. F. & van Hulst, N. F. J. Chem. Phys. 123, 064703 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Malý, P., Gruber, J. M., Cogdell, R. J., Mančal, T. & van Grondelle, R. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 2934–2939 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Pavel Malý

Authors
  1. Pavel Malý
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pavel Malý.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Malý, P. Facing the fluctuations. Nat. Chem. 14, 121–123 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-021-00881-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-021-00881-1

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing