Modification of room-temperature picosecond chlorophyll fluorescence kinetics in Photosystem-II-enriched particles by photochemistry

Room-temperature single photon timing measurements on Photosystem-II (PS II-) enriched thylakoid fragments at low excitation energies indicate the presence of three kinetic decay components of chlorophyll fluorescence arising from PS-II-associated pigments. Closing the PS II reaction centres produced three variable components, with lifetime values of 0.02–0.25, 0.15–0.90 and 0.35–2.0 ns, between the initial (F₀) and maximal (F_m) fluorescence levels. The yield of each component paralleled the changes in their respective lifetimes, indicating the presence of well-connected PS II reaction centres favouring energy transfer between each other. These changes show that variable chlorophyll fluorescence (F_v) does not arise from one specific origin. The extent of the modifications and the observed relationship between component lifetime and yield, on closing PS II reaction centres, cannot be explained by either the delayed fluorescence (charge recombination) hypothesis of Klimov and co-workers (Klimov, V.V. et al. (1978) Dokl. Akad. Nauk. SSSR 242, 1204–1207) or the proposed changes and origins put forward by Holzwarth and co-workers (Holzwarth, A.R. (1986) Photochem. Photobiol. 43, 707–725; Holzwarth, A.R. et al. (1985) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 807, 155–167).