Light control over the size of an antenna unit building block as an efficient strategy for light harvesting in photosynthesis.

It was shown that an increase in the bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) c antenna size observed upon lowering growth light intensities led to enhancement of the hyperchromism of the BChl c Q(y) absorption band of the green photosynthetic bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus. With femtosecond difference absorption spectroscopy, it was shown that the amplitude of bleaching of the oligomeric BChl c Q(y) band (as compared to that for monomeric BChl a) increased with increasing BChl c content in chlorosomes. This BChl c bleaching amplitude was about doubled as the chlorosomal antenna size was about trebled. Both sets of findings clearly show that a unit BChl c aggregate in the chlorosomal antenna is variable in size and governed by the grow light intensity, thus ensuring the high efficiency of energy transfer within the BChl c antenna regardless of its size.