The photosynthetic supercomplex Photosystem I–light harvesting complex I (PSI-LHCI) of plants is a molecular machine involved in energy conversion.
Concentration of energy in the PSI reaction center is strikingly efficient, despite the unusual presence of low-energy, trapping states (red forms) spatially far from the reaction center. The main energy transfer processes occurring in PSI-LHCI are still unclear, as the size and complexity of the system prevent immediate interpretation of spectroscopic signals and challenges traditional modeling approaches. Here we present a multiscale quantum chemical model able to characterize the exciton structure of the full Chlorophyll aggregate in plant PSI-LHCI, including the red forms. We use this model to simulate the dynamics of the exciton in the whole photosystem, unveiling the most important energy transfer pathways and the role of the red forms.
Betti, E. & Cupellini, L.
Energy Transfer Pathways in Plant Photosystem I from First-Principles Modeling.
JACS Au (2026)
Read the full paper at: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.6c00568
