Near-infrared resonance Raman spectra of Chloroflexus aurantiacus photosynthetic reaction centers.

Resonance Raman spectra of the photosynthetic reaction center isolated from the green bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus have been obtained with excitation in the near-infrared absorption bands of the special pair (P) and the accessory bacteriochlorophyll (B) using shifted-excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS). These spectra are compared with the previously reported Raman spectra of P and B in reaction centers from the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The spectra of P and B from the two species are nearly identical. Common and distinctive attributes of these spectra include enhanced low-frequency (30-200 cm-1) modes in P and the absence of strong Raman activity in modes higher than 1200 cm-1 in both P and B. Also, the absolute scattering cross sections with excitation in the P band are unusually weak in both reaction centers, indicating that their excited states are rapidly vibronically dephased. The striking similarities between the P and B spectra in reaction centers from two very different bacterial species suggest that the common nuclear and electronic dynamics identified here are characteristic of photosynthetic reaction centers.