Functional Organization of super-molecular complex with the function of photo-electric conversion

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The purpose of this proposal is to use photosynthetic antenna pigment complexes, LH2 and LH1-RC of purple photosynthetic bacteria in order to control the direction and orientation of the complex on electrodes with pattern for developing nano-biodevices. The pigment-protein complexes of the modified LH1-RC or LH2 complex was laid down onto functionalized electrodes, such as ITO or Au electrode. Upon illumination photocurrents were successfully measured. Excitation spectra confirmed that these photocurrents were produced by light absorbed by the pigment-protein complexes. Further, LH1 synthetic model polypeptides, analogous to the native LH polypeptide were assembled on Au or ITO electrode. Pigments such as native and chlorophyll derivatives were selected and assembled on the specific site of the LH1 synthetic model polypeptides to control the organization of the pigments on electrodes. The structural effects of the pigments and the synthetic polypeptides in lipid bilayers on the production of the efficient photocurrent were examined as well as using electro-conductive AFM study. These methods were useful for the self-assembly of these complexes in order to study the energy transfer and electron transfer reactions between individual pigments and hydrophobic or polar amino acids in the complexes on the electrode.