Flash-induced structural dynamics in photosystem II membrane fragments of green plants.

Time-resolved quasielastic neutron scattering with laser excitation is a promising novel pump-probe approach, which opens up new perspectives for the study of protein-membrane dynamics in specific functional states of even complex systems. This is demonstrated here for the case of photosystem II membrane fragments with inhibited electron transfer. In contrast to the case of the model system bacteriorhodopsin, a transient reduction of the dynamics is observed approximately 160 micros after the actinic laser flash. This effect is the first observation of a modulated structural dynamics in photosystem II membrane fragments.