Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex

Figure 1. The FMO protein trimer. The BChl a molecules are depicted in green, the central magnesium atom in red and the protein in grey ("cartoons" representation). The monomers look a bit like taco burgers filled with bacteriochlorophylls. Structure from,[1] available in the protein data bank (www.pdb.org).

The Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex is a water-soluble complex and was the first pigment-protein complex (PPC) to be structure analyzed by x-ray spectroscopy.[2] It appears in green sulfur bacteria and mediates the excitation energy transfer from light-harvesting chlorosomes to the membrane-embedded bacterial reaction center (bRC). Its structure is trimeric (C3-symmetry). Each of the three monomers contains seven bacteriochlorophyll a (BChl a) molecules. They are bound to the protein scaffold via ligation of their central magnesium atom either to amino acids of the protein (mostly histidine) or water-bridged oxygen atoms (only one BChl a of each monomer).

Since the structure is available, calculating structure-based optical spectra is possible for comparison with experimental optical spectra.[3][4] In the simplest case only the excitonic coupling of the BChls is taken into account.[5] More realistic theories consider pigment-protein coupling.[6] An important property is the local transition energy (site energy) of the BChls, different for each, due to their individual local protein environment. The site energies of the BChls determine the direction of the energy flow.

Some structural information on the FMO-RC super complex is available, which was obtained by electron microscopy[7][8] and linear dichroism spectra measured on FMO trimers and FMO-RC complexes. From these measurements, two orientations of the FMO complex relative to the RC are possible. The orientation with BChl 3 and 4 close to the RC and BChl 1 and 6 (following Fenna and Matthews' original numbering) oriented towards the chlorosomes is useful for efficient energy transfer.[9]

Test object

The complex is the simplest PPC appearing in nature and therefore a suitable test object for the development of methods that can be transferred to more complex systems like photosystem I. The FMO complex exhibits remarkably long quantum coherence, which plays an important part in energy transfer processes within the system.[10]

Quantum light harvesting

Light harvesting in photosynthesis employs both classical and quantum mechanical processes with an energy efficiency of almost 100 percent. For light to produce energy in classical processes, photons must reach reaction sites before their energy dissipates in less than one nanosecond. In photosynthetic processes, this is not possible. Because energy can exist in a superposition of states, it can travel all routes within a material at the same time. When a photon finds the correct destination, the superposition collapses, making the energy available. However, no purely quantum process can be wholly responsible, because some quantum processes slow down the movement of quantized objects through networks. Anderson localisation prevents the spread of quantum states in random media. Because the state acts like a wave, it is vulnerable to disruptive interference effects. Another issue is the quantum zeno effect, in which an unstable state never changes if it is continuously measured/watched, because watching constantly nudges the state, preventing it from collapsing.[11][12]

Interactions between quantum states and the environment act like measurements. The classical interaction with the environment changes the wave-like nature of the quantum state just enough to prevent Anderson localisation, while the quantum zeno effect extends the quantum state's lifetime, allowing it to reach the reaction centre.[11]

Computing

The problem of finding a reaction centre in a protein matrix is formally equivalent to many problems in computing. Mapping computing problems onto reaction center searches may allow light harvesting to work as a computational device, improving computational speeds at room temperature, yielding 100-1000x efficiency.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Tronrud, D.E.; Schmid, M.F.; Matthews, B.W. (April 1986). "Structure and X-ray amino acid sequence of a bacteriochlorophyll a protein from Prosthecochloris aestuarii refined at 1.9 A resolution". Journal of Molecular Biology 188 (3): 443–54. doi:10.1016/0022-2836(86)90167-1. PMID 3735428.
  2. ↑ Fenna, R. E.; Matthews, B. W. (1975). "Chlorophyll arrangement in a bacteriochlorophyll protein from Chlorobium limicola". Nature 258 (5536): 573–7. Bibcode:1975Natur.258..573F. doi:10.1038/258573a0.
  3. ↑ Vulto, Simone I. E.; Neerken, Sieglinde; Louwe, Robert J. W.; De Baat, Michiel A.; Amesz, Jan; Aartsma, Thijs J. (1998). "Excited-State Structure and Dynamics in FMO Antenna Complexes from Photosynthetic Green Sulfur Bacteria". The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 102 (51): 10630–5. doi:10.1021/jp983003v.
  4. ↑ Wendling, Markus; Przyjalgowski, Milosz A.; Gülen, Demet; Vulto, Simone I. E.; Aartsma, Thijs J.; Van Grondelle, Rienk van; Van Amerongen, Herbert van (2002). "The quantitative relationship between structure and polarized spectroscopy in the FMO complex of Prosthecochloris aestuarii: refining experiments and simulations". Photosynthesis Research 71 (1–2): 99–123. doi:10.1023/A:1014947732165. PMID 16228505.
  5. ↑ Pearlstein, Robert M. (1992). "Theory of the optical spectra of the bacteriochlorophyll a antenna protein trimer from Prosthecochloris aestuarii". Photosynthesis Research 31 (3): 213–226. doi:10.1007/BF00035538. PMID 24408061.
  6. ↑ Renger, Thomas; Marcus, R. A. (2002). "On the relation of protein dynamics and exciton relaxation in pigment–protein complexes: An estimation of the spectral density and a theory for the calculation of optical spectra". The Journal of Chemical Physics 116 (22): 9997–10019. Bibcode:2002JChPh.116.9997R. doi:10.1063/1.1470200.
  7. ↑ Rémigy, Hervé-W; Stahlberg, Henning; Fotiadis, Dimitrios; Müller, Shirley A; Wolpensinger, Bettina; Engel, Andreas; Hauska, Günter; Tsiotis, Georgios (July 1999). "The reaction center complex from the green sulfur bacterium Chlorobium tepidum: a structural analysis by scanning transmission electron microscopy". Journal of Molecular Biology 290 (4): 851–8. doi:10.1006/jmbi.1999.2925. PMID 10398586.
  8. ↑ Rémigy, Hervé -W.; Hauska, Günter; Müller, Shirley A.; Tsiotis, Georgios (2002). "The reaction centre from green sulphur bacteria: progress towards structural elucidation". Photosynthesis Research 71 (1–2): 91–8. doi:10.1023/A:1014963816574. PMID 16228504.
  9. ↑ Adolphs, Julian; Renger, Thomas (October 2006). "How proteins trigger excitation energy transfer in the FMO complex of green sulfur bacteria". Biophysical Journal 91 (8): 2778–97. Bibcode:2006BpJ....91.2778A. doi:10.1529/biophysj.105.079483. PMC 1578489. PMID 16861264.
  10. ↑ Engel, Gregory S.; Calhoun, Tessa R.; Read, Elizabeth L.; Ahn, Tae-Kyu; Mancal, Tomáš; Cheng, Yuan-Chung; Blankenship, Robert E.; Fleming, Graham R. (2007). "Evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems". Nature 446 (7137): 782–786. Bibcode:2007Natur.446..782E. doi:10.1038/nature05678. PMID 17429397.
  11. 1 2 3 MIT (2013-11-25). "Quantum Light Harvesting Hints at Entirely New Form of Computing". Technologyreview.com. Retrieved 2013-12-06.
  12. ↑ Vattay, Gabor; Kauffman, Stuart A. (2013). "Evolutionary Design in Biological Quantum Computing". arXiv:1311.4688 [cond-mat.dis-nn].
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