Role of an elliptical structure in photosynthetic energy transfer: Collaboration between quantum entanglement and thermal fluctuation

Recent experiments have revealed that the light-harvesting complex 1 (LH1) in purple photosynthetic bacteria has an elliptical structure. Generally, symmetry lowering in a structure leads to a decrease in quantum effects (quantum coherence and entanglement), which have recently been considered to pl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-05, Vol.6 (1), p.26058-26058, Article 26058
Main Author: Oka, Hisaki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/766/483
639/766/94
Bacterial Proteins - chemistry
Bacterial Proteins - metabolism
Bacteriochlorophylls - metabolism
Energy Transfer
Hot Temperature
Humanities and Social Sciences
Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes - chemistry
Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes - metabolism
Molecular Structure
multidisciplinary
Photosynthesis
Protein Conformation
Quantum Theory
Rhodopseudomonas - physiology
Science
Structure-Activity Relationship
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Summary:Recent experiments have revealed that the light-harvesting complex 1 (LH1) in purple photosynthetic bacteria has an elliptical structure. Generally, symmetry lowering in a structure leads to a decrease in quantum effects (quantum coherence and entanglement), which have recently been considered to play a role in photosynthetic energy transfer and hence, elliptical structure seems to work against efficient photosynthetic energy transfer. Here we analyse the effect of an elliptical structure on energy transfer in a purple photosynthetic bacterium and reveal that the elliptical distortion rather enhances energy transfer from peripheral LH2 to LH1 at room temperature. Numerical results show that quantum entanglement between LH1 and LH2 is formed over a wider range of high energy levels than would have been the case with circular LH1. Light energy absorbed by LH2 is thermally pumped via thermal fluctuation and is effectively transferred to LH1 through the entangled states at room temperature rather than at low temperature. This result indicates the possibility that photosynthetic systems adopt an elliptical structure to effectively utilise both quantum entanglement and thermal fluctuation at physiological temperature.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep26058