The transients of normalized fluorescence yield induced by an actinic laser flash in dark adapted leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana plants were measured with new equipment, that was developed as part of this work and permits the covarage of a wide time domain of 8 decades from 100 ns to 10 s. The raw data obtained were processed and analyzed within the framework of the "3-quencher" model with Q(A) as photochemical and P680(+)(*) and (3)Car as nonphotochemical quenchers. Comparative measurements with hydroxylamine treated PS II membrane fragments from spinach revealed that the widely used "dogma"of virtually identical efficiency of photochemical (Q(A)) and nonphotochemical (P680(+)(*)) quenching has to be revised: the constant of the latter exceeds that of the former by a factor of about 2. As a consequence, the probability of recombination between P680(+)(*) and Q(A)(-) and its kinetics have to be explicitly taken into account for the interpretation of flash induced fluorescence yield transients. The analysis of the experimental data within this extended "3-quencher" model reveals that a fully consistent description is achieved for the data gathered from measurements with intact leaves from wild type plants excited with actinic laser flashes of different energies (number of photons per flash and unit area). On the basis of these results it is shown that, in dark adapted leaves excited with a single laser flash, P680(+)(*) is predominantly (about 80% of the total reaction) reduced by Y(Z) via nanosecond kinetics and Q(A)(-) reoxidation is dominated by a kinetics of about 150 mus that are ascribed to PS II complexes with the Q(B) site occupied by PQ. The excess of excited chlorophyll singlet states decays to a significant extent via the carotenoid "triplet valve"with transient population of (3)Car. The present data provide the basis for analyses of A. thaliana mutants with modified lipid content and composition. The results of these investigations are described in an accompanying report (Steffen, R., Kelly, A. A., Huyer, J., Dormann, P., and Renger, G. (2005) Investigations on the reaction pattern of photosystem II in leaves from Arabidopsis thaliana wild type plants and mutants with genetically modified lipid content, Biochemistry 44, 3134-3142).

The set up described in Steffen et al. (Biochemistry 40:173-180, 2001) was used to monitor in the time domain from 100 ns to 10 s single turnover flash-induced transients of the normalized fluorescence yield (SFITFY) on dark-adapted cells of the thermophilic algae Chlorella pyrenoidosa Chick. Perfect data fit was achieved within the framework of a previously proposed model for the PS II reaction pattern (Lebedeva et al., Biophysics 47:968-980, 2002; Belyaeva et al., Biophysics 51:860-872, 2006) after its modification by taking into account nonradiative decay processes including nonphotochemical quenching due to time-dependent populations of P680(+*) and (3)Car. On the basis of data reported in the literature, a consistent set of rate constants was obtained for electron transfer at the donor and acceptor sides of PS II, pH in lumen and stroma, the initial redox state of plastoquinone pool and the rate of plastoquinone oxidation. The evaluation of the rate constant values of dissipative processes due to quenching by carotenoid triplets in antennae and P680(+*)Q(A)(-*) recombination as well as the initial state populations after excitation with a single laser flash are close to that outlined in (Steffen et al., Biochemistry 44:3123-3133, 2005a). The simulations based on the model of the PS II reaction pattern provide information on the time courses of population probabilities of different PS II states. We analyzed the maximum (F(m)(STF)) and minimum (F(0)) of the normalized FL yield dependence on the rate of the recombination processes (radiative and dissipative nonradiative) and of P680(+*) reduction. The developed PS II model provides a basis for theoretical comparative analyses of time-dependent fluorescence signals, observed at different photosynthetic samples under various conditions (e.g. presence of herbicides, other stress conditions, excitation with actinic pulses of different intensity, and duration).

Gold nanocavity arrays were prepared on fluorine-doped tin oxide on glass by electrochemical deposition of gold through monolayers of polystyrene spheres. The impact of the resulting spherical cap architecture on the photophysics of solutions and self-assembled monolayers of luminophore encapsulated within the nanocavities is reported for the first time. From conventional confocal fluorescence microscopy, the emission intensity of solutions of [Ru(bpy)(2)(Qbpy)](2+) (where bpy is 2,2'-bipyridyl and Qbpy is 2,2':4,4'':4,4''-quarterpyridyl) and fullerene (C(60)) encapsulated within the 820 nm diameter nanocavities was demonstrated to increase by approximately an order of magnitude compared with that of the associated bulk solution. Comparison was also made with the emission observed for luminophore solution encapsulated in cobalt nanocavities of comparable dimensions, where plasmonic interactions are not anticipated. Again, approximately an order of magnitude enhancement was observed for the gold arrays. Luminescence lifetime imaging revealed that the enhancement of the emission intensity of this solution within the nanocavity was accompanied by a small but significant decrease in the luminescent lifetime for [Ru(bpy)(2)(Qbpy)](2+). Enhancement was, in addition, strongly influenced by the wavelength of excitation, suggesting that plasmonics may play a role in the enhancement of the excitation process. An important observation from confocal imaging studies was that the dimensions of the luminophore emission field from solution within the cavities were significantly smaller than the dimensions of the cavity aperture and corresponded to a little more than that of the point spread function of the microscope. This indicates that its origin is significantly smaller than the wavelength of the emitted light and suggests that luminescence enhancement is highly localised. When the array was filled with a solution of [Ru(bpy)(2)(Qbpy)](2+) the emission spectrum of this complex was red shifted and broadened compared with that of the bulk solution, typical of the formation of a luminescent surface film. In addition, significant enhancement was only observed when the solution was sonicated into the array. Both these observations suggest that the emission enhancement is localised near the bottom of the cavity. Self-assembled monolayers of [Ru(bpy)(2)(Qbpy)](2+) were formed on the array and approximately 7 orders of magnitude enhancement of the Raman signal was achieved. Significantly, the emission intensity was approximately 4-fold higher for the monolayer than for a solid film under the same conditions, but surface quenching is thought to play a significant role in the observed decrease in lifetime for the monolayer of this complex on the array.

The present contribution describes a new experimental setup that permits time-resolved monitoring of the rise kinetics of the relative fluorescence yield, Phi(rel)(t), and simultaneously of the decay of delayed light emission, L(t), induced by strong actinic laser flashes. The results obtained by excitation of dark-adapted samples with a train of eight flashes reveal (a) in suspensions of spinach thylakoids, Phi(rel)(t) exhibits a typical period four oscillation that is characteristic for a dependence on the redox states S(i)() of the water oxidizing complex (WOC), (b) the relative extent of the unresolved "instantaneous" rise to the level (100 ns) at 100 ns and the maximum values of Phi(rel)(t) attained at about 45 s after each actinic flash, (45 s) synchronously oscillate and exhibit the largest values at flash nos. 1 and 5 and minima after flash nos. 2 and 3, (c) opposite effects are observed for the normalized extent of the rise kinetics in the 100 ns to 5 s time domain of relative fluorescence yield, Phi(rel)(5 s) - Phi(rel)(100 ns), i.e., both parameters attain minimum and maximum values after the first/fifth and second/third flash, respectively, and (d) analogous features for the "fast" and "slow" ns-kinetics of the fluorescence rise were observed in suspensions of Chlamydomas reinhardtii cells. A slight phase shift by one flash is ascribed to physiological differences. The applicability of this noninvasive technique to study reactions of photosystem II, especially the reduction kinetics of P680(*)(+) and their dependence on the redox state S(i)() of the WOC, is discussed.

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