In Vivo Photophysics of Photosynthetic Carotenoids

类胡萝卜素是细菌、藻类和高等植物光合作用的重要组成部分，在捕光和抵御光敏氧化方面起着至关重要的作用。虽然类胡萝卜素在捕光和光保护中的作用已经明确，但对这些所需的激发单态和三态能量转移反应的细节了解很少。Albrecht和Owens博士建议研究几种细菌和藻类色素-蛋白质复合体中光合类胡萝卜素的体内光物理。主要的重点将放在提供从类胡萝卜素到叶绿素的单线态能量转移的机制描述上。超快吸收光谱将用于研究单重态和三重态转移反应的动力学，并用于鉴定非均相类胡萝卜素功能。共振拉曼技术，包括拉曼激发谱，将被用于探测体内不同种类的类胡萝卜素功能。

Carotenoids are essential components of the photosynthetic apparatus of bacteria, algae and higher plants and serve critical roles in light-harvesting and protection against photosensitized oxidations. Although the roles of carotenoids in light-harvesting and photoprotection are clearly established, the details of the excited singlet and triplet energy transfer reactions required for these are poorly understood. Drs. Albrecht and Owens propose to investigate the in vivo photophysics of photosynthetic carotenoids in several bacterial and algal pigment-protein complexes. Primary emphasis will be placed on providing a mechanistic description of singlet energy transfer from carotenoids to chlorophylls. Ultrafast absorption spectroscopy will be used to study the dynamics of singlet and triplet transfer reactions and to identify heterogeneous carotenoid function. Resonance Raman techniques, including Raman excitation profiles, will be used to probe heterogeneous carotenoid functions in vivo.