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Tan J, Wang M, Ni Z, Pei R, Shi F, Ye S. Intermolecular Protein-Water Coupling Impedes the Coupling Between the Amide A and Amide I Mode in Interfacial Proteins. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2024; 40:6587-6594. [PMID: 38486393 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c00246] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/27/2024]
Abstract
The coupling between different vibrational modes in proteins is essential for chemical dynamics and biological functions and is linked to the propagation of conformational changes and pathways of allosteric communication. However, little is known about the influence of intermolecular protein-H2O coupling on the vibrational coupling between amide A (NH) and amide I (C═O) bands. Here, we investigate the NH/CO coupling strength in various peptides with different secondary structures at the lipid cell membrane/H2O interface using femtosecond time-resolved sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS) in which a femtosecond infrared pump is used to excite the amide A band, and SFG-VS is used to probe transient spectral evolution in the amide A and amide I bands. Our results reveal that the NH/CO coupling strength strongly depends on the bandwidth of the amide I mode and the coupling of proteins with water molecules. A large extent of protein-water coupling significantly reduces the delocalization of the amide I mode along the peptide chain and impedes the NH/CO coupling strength. A large NH/CO coupling strength is found to show a strong correlation with the high energy transfer rate found in the light-harvesting proteins of green sulfur bacteria, which may understand the mechanism of energy transfer through a molecular system and assist in controlling vibrational energy transfer by engineering the molecular structures to achieve high energy transfer efficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junjun Tan
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230088, China
| | - Mengmeng Wang
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
| | - Zijian Ni
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
| | - Ruoqi Pei
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
| | - Fangwen Shi
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
| | - Shuji Ye
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, and Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230088, China
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2
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Saraceno P, Sláma V, Cupellini L. First-principles simulation of excitation energy transfer and transient absorption spectroscopy in the CP29 light-harvesting complex. J Chem Phys 2023; 159:184112. [PMID: 37962444 DOI: 10.1063/5.0170295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 11/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The dynamics of delocalized excitons in light-harvesting complexes (LHCs) can be investigated using different experimental techniques, and transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy is one of the most valuable methods for this purpose. A careful interpretation of TA spectra is essential for the clarification of excitation energy transfer (EET) processes occurring during light-harvesting. However, even in the simplest LHCs, a physical model is needed to interpret transient spectra as the number of EET processes occurring at the same time is very large to be disentangled from measurements alone. Physical EET models are commonly built by fittings of the microscopic exciton Hamiltonians and exciton-vibrational parameters, an approach that can lead to biases. Here, we present a first-principles strategy to simulate EET and transient absorption spectra in LHCs, combining molecular dynamics and accurate multiscale quantum chemical calculations to obtain an independent estimate of the excitonic structure of the complex. The microscopic parameters thus obtained are then used in EET simulations to obtain the population dynamics and the related spectroscopic signature. We apply this approach to the CP29 minor antenna complex of plants for which we follow the EET dynamics and transient spectra after excitation in the chlorophyll b region. Our calculations reproduce all the main features observed in the transient absorption spectra and provide independent insight on the excited-state dynamics of CP29. The approach presented here lays the groundwork for the accurate simulation of EET and unbiased interpretation of transient spectra in multichromophoric systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Piermarco Saraceno
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, University of Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Vladislav Sláma
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, University of Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Cupellini
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, University of Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
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3
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Bose A, Walters PL. Impact of Spatial Inhomogeneity on Excitation Energy Transport in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson Complex. J Phys Chem B 2023; 127:7663-7673. [PMID: 37647510 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c03062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/01/2023]
Abstract
The dynamics of the excitation energy transfer (EET) in photosynthetic complexes is an interesting question both from the perspective of fundamental understanding and the research in artificial photosynthesis. Over the past decade, very accurate spectral densities have been developed to capture spatial inhomogeneities in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex. However, challenges persist in numerically simulating these systems, both in terms of parameterizing them and following their dynamics over long periods of time because of long non-Markovian memories. We investigate the dynamics of FMO with the exact treatment of various theoretical spectral densities using the new tensor network path integral-based methods, which are uniquely capable of addressing the difficulty of long memory length and incoherent Förster theory. It is also important to be able to analyze the pathway of EET flow, which can be difficult to identify given the non-trivial structure of connections between bacteriochlorophyll molecules in FMO. We use the recently introduced ideas of relating coherence to population derivatives to analyze the transport process and reveal some new routes of transport. The combination of exact and approximate methods sheds light on the role of coherences in affecting the fine details of the transport and promises to be a powerful toolbox for future exploration of other open systems with quantum transport.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amartya Bose
- Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India
| | - Peter L Walters
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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4
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Ress L, Malý P, Landgraf JB, Lindorfer D, Hofer M, Selby J, Lambert C, Renger T, Brixner T. Time-resolved circular dichroism of excitonic systems: theory and experiment on an exemplary squaraine polymer. Chem Sci 2023; 14:9328-9349. [PMID: 37712031 PMCID: PMC10498725 DOI: 10.1039/d3sc01674a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 07/28/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Experimental and theoretical foundations for femtosecond time-resolved circular dichroism (TRCD) spectroscopy of excitonic systems are presented. In this method, the system is pumped with linearly polarized light and the signal is defined as the difference between the transient absorption spectrum probed with left and with right circularly polarized light. We present a new experimental setup with a polarization grating as key element to generate circularly polarized pulses. Herein the positive (negative) first order of the diffracted light is left-(right-)circularly polarized and serves as a probe pulse in a TRCD experiment. The grating is capable of transferring ultrashort broadband pulses ranging from 470 nm to 720 nm into two separate beams with opposite ellipticity. By applying a specific chopping scheme we can switch between left and right circular polarizations and detect transient absorption (TA) and TRCD spectra on a shot-to-shot basis simultaneously. We perform experiments on a squaraine polymer, investigating excitonic dynamics, and we develop a general theory for TRCD experiments of excitonically coupled systems that we then apply to describe the experimental data in this particular example. At a magic angle of 54.7° between the pump-pulse polarization and the propagation direction of the probe pulse, the TRCD and TA signals become particularly simple to analyze, since the orientational average over random orientations of complexes factorizes into that of the interaction with the pump and the probe pulse, and the intrinsic electric quadrupole contributions to the TRCD signal average to zero for isotropic samples. Application of exciton theory to linear absorption and to linear circular dichroism spectra of squaraine polymers reveals the presence of two fractions of polymer conformations, a dominant helical conformation with close interpigment distances that are suggested to lead to short-range contributions to site energy shifts and excitonic couplings of the squaraine molecules, and a fraction of unfolded random coils. Theory demonstrates that TRCD spectra of selectively excited helices can resolve state populations that are practically invisible in TA spectroscopy due to the small dipole strength of these states. A qualitative interpretation of TRCD and TA spectra in the spectral window investigated experimentally is offered. The 1 ps time component found in these spectra is related to the slow part of exciton relaxation obtained between states of the helix in the low-energy half of the exciton manifold. The dominant 140 ps time constant reflects the decay of excited states to the electronic ground state.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lea Ress
- Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Universität Würzburg Am Hubland 97074 Würzburg Germany
| | - Pavel Malý
- Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Universität Würzburg Am Hubland 97074 Würzburg Germany
- Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University Ke Karlovu 5 121 16 Praha 2 Czech Republic
| | - Jann B Landgraf
- Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Universität Würzburg Am Hubland 97074 Würzburg Germany
- Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies (FIT), Universität Freiburg Georges-Köhler-Allee 105 79110 Freiburg Germany
| | - Dominik Lindorfer
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz Altenberger Str. 69 4040 Linz Austria
| | - Michael Hofer
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz Altenberger Str. 69 4040 Linz Austria
| | - Joshua Selby
- Institut für Organische Chemie, Universität Würzburg Am Hubland 97074 Würzburg Germany
| | - Christoph Lambert
- Institut für Organische Chemie, Universität Würzburg Am Hubland 97074 Würzburg Germany
| | - Thomas Renger
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz Altenberger Str. 69 4040 Linz Austria
| | - Tobias Brixner
- Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Universität Würzburg Am Hubland 97074 Würzburg Germany
- Center for Nanosystems Chemistry (CNC), Universität Würzburg Theodor-Boveri-Weg 97074 Würzburg Germany
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Maity S, Kleinekathöfer U. Recent progress in atomistic modeling of light-harvesting complexes: a mini review. PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESEARCH 2023; 156:147-162. [PMID: 36207489 PMCID: PMC10070314 DOI: 10.1007/s11120-022-00969-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2022] [Accepted: 09/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
In this mini review, we focus on recent advances in the atomistic modeling of biological light-harvesting (LH) complexes. Because of their size and sophisticated electronic structures, multiscale methods are required to investigate the dynamical and spectroscopic properties of such complexes. The excitation energies, in this context also known as site energies, excitonic couplings, and spectral densities are key quantities which usually need to be extracted to be able to determine the exciton dynamics and spectroscopic properties. The recently developed multiscale approach based on the numerically efficient density functional tight-binding framework followed by excited state calculations has been shown to be superior to the scheme based on pure classical molecular dynamics simulations. The enhanced approach, which improves the description of the internal vibrational dynamics of the pigment molecules, yields spectral densities in good agreement with the experimental counterparts for various bacterial and plant LH systems. Here, we provide a brief overview of those results and described the theoretical foundation of the multiscale protocol.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sayan Maity
- Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, 28759, Bremen, Germany
| | - Ulrich Kleinekathöfer
- Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, 28759, Bremen, Germany.
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Friedl C, Fedorov DG, Renger T. Towards a quantitative description of excitonic couplings in photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes: quantum chemistry driven multiscale approaches. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:5014-5038. [PMID: 35142765 PMCID: PMC8865841 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp03566e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
A structure-based quantitative calculation of excitonic couplings between photosynthetic pigments has to describe the dynamical polarization of the protein/solvent environment of the pigments, giving rise to reaction field and screening effects. Here, this challenging problem is approached by combining the fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method with the polarizable continuum model (PCM). The method is applied to compute excitonic couplings between chlorophyll a (Chl a) pigments of the water-soluble chlorophyll-binding protein (WSCP). By calibrating the vacuum dipole strength of the 0–0 transition of the Chl a chromophores according to experimental data, an excellent agreement between calculated and experimental linear absorption and circular dichroism spectra of WSCP is obtained. The effect of the mutual polarization of the pigment ground states is calculated to be very small. The simple Poisson-Transition-charge-from-Electrostatic-potential (Poisson-TrEsp) method is found to accurately describe the screening part of the excitonic coupling, obtained with FMO/PCM. Taking into account that the reaction field effects of the latter method can be described by a scalar constant leads to an improvement of Poisson-TrEsp that is expected to provide the basis for simple and realistic calculations of optical spectra and energy transfer in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes. In addition, we present an expression for the estimation of Huang–Rhys factors of high-frequency pigment vibrations from experimental fluorescence line-narrowing spectra that takes into account the redistribution of oscillator strength by the interpigment excitonic coupling. Application to WSCP results in corrected Huang–Rhys factors that are less than one third of the original values obtained by the standard electronic two-state analysis that neglects the above redistribution. These factors are important for the estimation of the dipole strength of the 0–0 transition of the chromophores and for the development of calculation schemes for the spectral density of the exciton-vibrational coupling. The importance of reaction field and screening effects on the excitonic couplings is demonstrated, and from quantum-chemical calculations a single scaling factor is derived that can be used to improve simple models based on the Poisson equation.![]()
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Friedl
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger Str. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
| | - Dmitri G Fedorov
- Research Center for Computational Design of Advanced Functional Materials (CD-FMat), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Central 2, Umezono 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305-8568, Japan.
| | - Thomas Renger
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger Str. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
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Cho KH, Rhee YM. Computational elucidations on the role of vibrations in energy transfer processes of photosynthetic complexes. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:26623-26639. [PMID: 34842245 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp04615b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Coupling between pigment excitations and nuclear movements in photosynthetic complexes is known to modulate the excitation energy transfer (EET) efficiencies. Toward providing microscopic information, researchers often apply simulation techniques and investigate how vibrations are involved in EET processes. Here, reports on such roles of nuclear movements are discussed from a theory perspective. While vibrations naturally present random thermal fluctuations that can affect energy transferring characteristics, they can also be intertwined with exciton structures and create more specific non-adiabatic energy transfer pathways. For reliable simulations, a bath model that accurately mimics a given molecular system is required. Methods for obtaining such a model in combination with quantum chemical electronic structure calculations and molecular dynamics trajectory simulations are discussed. Various quantum dynamics simulation tools that can handle pigment-to-pigment energy transfers together with their vibrational characters are also touched on. Behaviors of molecular vibrations often deviate from ideality, especially when all-atom details are included, which practically forces us to treat them classically. We conclude this perspective by considering some recent reports that suggest that classical descriptions of bath effects with all-atom details may still produce valuable information for analyzing sophisticated contributions by vibrations to EET processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kwang Hyun Cho
- Department of Chemistry, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea.
| | - Young Min Rhee
- Department of Chemistry, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea.
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Jang SJ, Burghardt I, Hsu CP, Bardeen CJ. Excitons: Energetics and spatiotemporal dynamics. J Chem Phys 2021; 155:200401. [PMID: 34852498 DOI: 10.1063/5.0075292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Seogjoo J Jang
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Queens College, City University of New York, 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Queens, New York 11367, USA and PhD Programs in Chemistry and Physics, and Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences, Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10016, USA
| | - Irene Burghardt
- Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Chao-Ping Hsu
- Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan and Physics Division, National Center for Theoretical Sciences, Taipei 106, Taiwan
| | - Christopher J Bardeen
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California 92521, USA
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Renger T. Semiclassical Modified Redfield and Generalized Förster Theories of Exciton Relaxation/Transfer in Light-Harvesting Complexes: The Quest for the Principle of Detailed Balance. J Phys Chem B 2021; 125:6406-6416. [PMID: 34126008 PMCID: PMC8237266 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c01479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
![]()
A conceptual problem
of transfer theories that use a semiclassical
description of the electron-vibrational coupling is the neglect of
the correlation between momenta and coordinates of nuclei. In the
Redfield theory of exciton relaxation, this neglect leads to a violation
of the principle of detailed balance; equal “uphill”
and “downhill” transfer rate constants are obtained.
Here, we investigate how this result depends on nuclear reorganization
effects, neglected in Redfield but taken into account in the modified
Redfield theory. These reorganization effects, resulting from a partial
localization of excited states, are found to promote a preferential
“downhill” relaxation of excitation energy. However,
for realistic spectral densities of light-harvesting antennae in photosynthesis,
the reorganization effects are too small to compensate for the missing
coordinate–momentum uncertainty. For weaker excitonic couplings
as they occur between domains of strongly coupled pigments, we find
the principle of detailed balance to be fulfilled in a semiclassical
variant of the generalized Förster theory. A qualitatively
correct description of the transfer is obtained with this theory at
a significantly lower computational cost as with the quantum generalized
Förster theory. Larger deviations between the two theories
are expected for large energy gaps as they occur in complexes with
chemically different pigments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Renger
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger Str. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria
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