Ishizaki Akihito, Fleming Graham R
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Oct 13;106(41):17255-60. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0908989106. Epub 2009 Oct 7.
The observation of long-lived electronic coherence in a photosynthetic pigment-protein complex, the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex, is suggestive that quantum coherence might play a significant role in achieving the remarkable efficiency of photosynthetic electronic energy transfer (EET), although the data were acquired at cryogenic temperature [Engel GS, et al. (2007) Evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems. Nature 446:782-786]. In this paper, the spatial and temporal dynamics of EET through the FMO complex at physiological temperature are investigated theoretically. The numerical results reveal that quantum wave-like motion persists for several hundred femtoseconds even at physiological temperature, and suggest that the FMO complex may work as a rectifier for unidirectional energy flow from the peripheral light-harvesting antenna to the reaction center complex by taking advantage of quantum coherence and the energy landscape of pigments tuned by the protein scaffold. A potential role of quantum coherence is to overcome local energetic traps and aid efficient trapping of electronic energy by the pigments facing the reaction center complex.
在光合色素 - 蛋白质复合物，即费纳 - 马修斯 - 奥尔森（FMO）复合物中观察到的长寿命电子相干性表明，量子相干可能在实现光合电子能量转移（EET）的卓越效率方面发挥重要作用，尽管这些数据是在低温下获得的[恩格尔·G·S等人（2007年）。光合系统中通过量子相干进行波状能量转移的证据。《自然》446:782 - 786]。在本文中，理论上研究了在生理温度下通过FMO复合物的EET的空间和时间动态。数值结果表明，即使在生理温度下，量子波状运动仍持续数百飞秒，这表明FMO复合物可能通过利用量子相干性和由蛋白质支架调节的色素能量景观，作为从周边光捕获天线到反应中心复合物的单向能量流的整流器。量子相干的一个潜在作用是克服局部能量陷阱，并帮助面向反应中心复合物的色素有效地捕获电子能量。
