Maximizing light capture by light-harvesting pigment optimization represents an attractive but challenging strategy to improve photosynthetic efficiency. Here, we report that loss of a previously uncharacterized gene, HIGH PHOTOSYNTHETIC EFFICIENCY1 (HPE1), optimizes light-harvesting pigments, leading to improved photosynthetic efficiency and biomass production. Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thalian...

We present light harvesting of aqueous colloidal quantum dots to nonradiatively transfer their excitonic excitation energy efficiently to dye molecules in water, without requiring ligand exchange. These as-synthesized CdTe quantum dots that are used as donors to serve as light-harvesting antennas are carefully optimized to match the electronic structure of Rhodamine B molecules used as acceptor...

The quantum dynamics of transport networks in the presence of noisy environments has recently received renewed attention with the discovery of long-lived coherences in different photosynthetic complexes. This experimental evidence has raised two fundamental questions: firstly, what are the mechanisms supporting long-lived coherences; and, secondly, how can we assess the possible functional role...

Photosynthesis is one of the most essential biological processes in which specialized pigment-protein complexes absorb solar photons, and with a remarkably high efficiency, guide the photo-induced excitation energy toward the reaction center to subsequently trigger its conversion to chemical energy. In this work, we review the principles of optimal energy transfer in various natural and artific...

A new type of bilayered photoanodes with cubic CeO(2) nanoparticles as mirror-like scattering thin layers was prepared via a screen-printing technique for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The light harvesting efficiency was significantly enhanced due to the mirror-like light scattering effect, resulting in noticeable ∼17.8% improvement of light-to-electric conversion efficiency.

A light-harvesting complex composed of a π-stacked multichromophoric array in a DNA three-way junction is described. The modular design allows for a ready exchange of non-covalently attached energy acceptors.

Singlet-singlet annihilation experiments have been performed on trimeric and aggregated light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) using picosecond spectroscopy to study spatial equilibration times in LHCII preparations, complementing the large amount of data on spectral equilibration available in literature. The annihilation kinetics for trimers can well be described by a statistical approach, and an...

We present a simple method to resolve discrete intensity shifts from time-resolved single-molecule emission data. This new method uses multiples of the standard deviation of the measured intensities that are integrated into short time bins. By applying the technique to trimeric units of the main light-harvesting complex (LHCII) of plants, it is shown that the amount of information that can be e...

Redox-regulated reversible phosphorylation of the light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) controls the excitation energy distribution between photosystem (PS) II and PSI. The PsaL and PsaH subunits of PSI enable the association of pLHCII to PSI. Here, we show that the failure of the psal mutant to dock pLHCII to PSI induces excessive phosphorylation of LHCII, primarily due to a marked downregulatio...

The time-resolved fluorescence intensity fluctuations from single, immobilized complexes of the main light-harvesting complex (LHCII) of plants were investigated in different pH environments close to room temperature and under different light conditions. The efficiency of light harvesting, which was represented by complexes typically residing for long periods in strongly fluorescing states, was...