Fluorescence anisotropy of cyanobacterial phycobilisomes oriented in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films.

Polarized absorption (at 296 and 85 K), fluorescence, and photoacoustic (at 296 and 85 K) spectra of antenna complexes-phycobilisomes isolated from cyanobacteriaTolypothrix tenuis andOscillatoria and embedded in isotropic and anisotropic polyvinyl alcohol films-were measured. From the sets of polarized components of emission, the anisotropy of fluorescence for the pools of differently oriented molecules was calculated. On the basis of polarized photoacoustic and emission spectra, the competition between the process of thermal deactivation of excitation and excitation energy transfer in a chain of excitation donor and acceptor chromophores of phycobilisomes is discussed.