Regensburg 2004 – scientific programme
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SYLS: Life Sciences on the Nanometer Scale - Physics Meets Biology
SYLS 3: Symposium "Life Sciences on the Nanometer Scale - Physics Meets Biology"
SYLS 3.21: Poster
Wednesday, March 10, 2004, 16:00–18:30, B
Conformational flexibility of pigment-protein complexes studied by optical single-molecule spectroscopy — •Silke Oellerich1, Martijn Ketelaars1, Jean-Manuel Segura1, Ward P.F. de Ruijter1, Richard J. Cogdell2, and Thijs J. Aartsma1 — 1Dept. of Biophysics, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands — 2Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Low temperature, optical single-molecule spectroscopy was employed to study the conformational flexibility and its effect on the electronic properties of individual pigment-protein complexes. We studied the bacterial light-harvesting complex 3 (LH3), which consists of 27 bacteriochlorophyll a (BChl a) pigments and exhibits a heterogeneous spectral behaviour at the single-molecule level. The applied technique provides information about both the interaction between the pigments within a complex as well as the effect of the local environment on an individual pigment. We show that the spectral heterogeneity is caused by light-induced conformational changes of individual BChl a pigments which affect the optical properties of the whole complex.