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Excess light causes damage to the photosynthetic apparatus of plants and algae primarily via reactive oxygen species. Singlet oxygen can be formed by interaction of chlorophyll (Chl) triplet states, especially in the Photosystem II reaction center, with oxygen. Whether Chls in the light-harvesting antenna complexes play direct role in oxidative photodamage is less clear. In this work, light-induced photobleaching of Chls in the major trimeric light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) is investigated in different molecular environments – protein aggregates, embedded in detergent micelles or in reconstituted membranes (proteoliposomes). The effects of intense light treatment were analyzed by absorption and circular dichroism spectroscopy, steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence and EPR spectroscopy. The rate and quantum yield of photobleaching was estimated from the light-induced Chl absorption changes. Photobleaching occurred mainly in Chl a and was accompanied by strong fluorescence quenching of the remaining unbleached Chls. The rate of photobleaching increased by 140% when LHCII was embedded in lipid membranes, compared to detergent-solubilized LHCII. Removing oxygen from the medium or adding antioxidants largely suppressed the bleaching, confirming its oxidative mechanism. Singlet oxygen formation was monitored by EPR spectroscopy using spin traps and spin labels to detect singlet oxygen directly and indirectly, respectively. The quantum yield of Chl a photobleaching in membranes and detergent was found to be 3.4 × 10 –5 and 1.4 × 10 –5 , respectively. These values compare well with the yields of ROS production estimated from spin-trap EPR spectroscopy (around 4 × 10 –5 and 2 × 10 –5 ). A kinetic model is proposed, quantifying the generation of Chl and carotenoid triplet states and singlet oxygen. The high quantum yield of photobleaching, especially in the lipid membrane, suggest that direct photodamage of the antenna occurs with rates relevant to photoinhibition in vivo . The results represent further evidence that the molecular environment of LHCII has profound impact on its functional characteristics, including, among others, the susceptibility to photodamage.

Rotary enzymes are complex, highly challenging biomolecular machines whose biochemical working mechanism involves intersubunit rotation. The true intrinsic rate of rotation of any rotary enzyme is not known in a native, unmodified state. Here we use the effect of an oscillating electric (AC) field on the biochemical activity of a rotary enzyme, the vacuolar proton-ATPase (V-ATPase), to directly measure its mean rate of rotation in its native membrane environment, without any genetic, chemical or mechanical modification of the enzyme, for the first time. The results suggest that a transmembrane AC field is able to synchronise the steps of ion-pumping in individual enzymes via a hold-and-release mechanism, which opens up the possibility of biotechnological exploitation. Our approach is likely to work for other transmembrane ion-transporting assemblies, not only rotary enzymes, to determine intrinsic in situ rates of ion pumping.

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Kinetics of the hydrolytic disproportionation of I 2 3I 2 + 3H 2 O ⇔ IO+ was studied by UV-VIS spectrophotometry at 298 K and at the ionic strength 0.2 M (NaClO 4 ) in buffered solutions in the pH range 8.91-10.50 at different initial iodide concentrations. The characterization of this reaction is fundamental for modeling oscillatory and front reactions in the presence of iodine as reactant or intermediate as well as for drinking water treatment. A matrix rank analysis confirmed three absorbing species in the beginning of the reaction, whereas later assumption of two species is enough to describe the experimental data in the visible part of the spectrum. A reaction mechanism was proposed for disproportionation by using fitting/simulation with a multipurpose program package ZiTa, by simultaneous evaluation of 17,906 points in 79 experimental curves. A parameter set was suggested, which was obtained by absolute, relative, and orthogonal fittings of the experimental data. C 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem

Effects of solvent, pH and hydrogen bonding with N-methylimidazole (MIm) on the photophysical properties of 1-hydroxyfluorenone (1HOF) have been studied. Fluorescence lifetime, fluorescence quantum yield and triplet yield measurements demonstrated that intersystem crossing was the dominant process in apolar media and its rate constant significantly diminished with increasing solvent polarity. The acceleration of internal conversion in alcohols paralleled the strength of intermolecular hydrogen bonding. The faster energy dissipation from the singlet-excited state in cyclohexane was attributed to intramolecular hydrogen bonding. The pK(a) of 1HOF decreased from 10.06 to 5.0 on light absorption, and H(3)O(+) quenched the singlet-excited molecules in a practically diffusion-controlled reaction. On addition of MIm in toluene, dual fluorescence was observed, which was attributed to reversible formation of excited hydrogen-bonded ion pair. Rate constants for the various deactivation pathways were derived from the combined analysis of the steady-state and the time-resolved fluorescence results.

The effects of fluorinated hydroxy compounds and naphthalene on the fluorescence of N-(4-pyridyl)-1,2-naphthalimide (PyNI) have been studied in toluene. The interaction of the pyridyl moiety of PyNI with hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) gave rise to a hydrogen-bonded complex, whereas a more stable, hydrogen-bonded ion pair was formed with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). Time-resolved fluorescence measurements demonstrate that hydrogen bonding with HFIP is a reversible process, even in the excited state, and revealed the rate constants of the various energy dissipation processes. The fluorescence yield enhancement of about one order of magnitude upon the 1 : 1 binding of PyNI to HFIP or TFA is primarily attributed to the deceleration of the internal conversion, and the fluorescence proved to be the dominant deactivation pathway of the singlet excited complexes. Both PyNI and its TFA complex produced fluorescent exciplexes with naphthalene. Protonation of PyNI markedly decreases the energy of the exciplex, leading to faster radiationless energy dissipation as well as to slow dissociation into an excited PyNI-TFA complex and ground-state naphthalene.

The oxidation of Hantzsch ester by a pyrylium cation takes 3 place via electron–proton–electron transfer. The present in-depth EPR study of the radical reactions of a NADH analogue indicate a complex electron transfer mechanism in the title reaction.