Syntheses of allene-modified derivatives of peridinin toward elucidation of the effective role of the allene function in high energy transfer efficiencies in photosynthesis.

Peridinin is known as the main light-harvesting pigment in photosynthesis in the sea and exhibits exceptionally high energy transfer efficiencies to chlorophyll a. This energy transfer efficiency is thought to be related to the intricate structure of peridinin, which possesses allene and ylidenbutenolide functions in the polyene backbone. There are, however, no studies on the relationship between the structural features of peridinin and its super ability for energy transfer. We then focused on the subjects of why peridinin possesses a unique allene group and how the allene function plays a role in the exceptionally high energy transfer. Toward elucidation of the exact role of the allene function, we now describe the syntheses of three relatively unstable allene-modified derivatives of peridinin along with the results of the Stark spectroscopy of peridinin and the synthesized peridinin derivatives.