Elucidation of structure–function relationships in photosynthetic light-harvesting antenna complexes by non-linear polarization spectroscopy in the frequency domain (NLPF) Review Article

Photosynthetically active pigments are usually organized into pigment–protein complexes. These include light-harvesting antenna complexes (LHCs) and reaction centers. Site energies of the bound pigments are determined by interactions with their environment, i.e., by pigment–protein as well as pigment–pigment interactions. Thus, resolution of spectral substructures of the pigment–protein complexes may provide valuable insight into structure–function relationships. By means of conventional (linear) and time-resolved spectroscopic techniques, however, it is often difficult to resolve the spectral substructures of complex pigment–protein assemblies. Nonlinear polarization spectroscopy in the frequency domain (NLPF) is shown to be a valuable technique in this regard. Based on initial experimental work with purple bacterial antenna complexes as well as model systems NLPF has been extended to analyse the substructure(s) of very complex spectra, including analyses of interactions between chlorophylls and “optically dark” states of carotenoids in LHCs. The paper reviews previous work and outlines perspectives regarding the application of NLPF spectroscopy to disentangle structure–function relationships in pigment–protein complexes.