Abstract

During the last decade, the molecular background of the primary electron transfer (ET) in photosynthetic reaction centers (RC) has been the theme of numerous publications. The unexpected fast reaction rates, the large distance between the electron donor (the special pair P) and the electron accepting bacteriopheophytin (BPhe) H_A, the role of the intermediary monomeric bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) B_A non-exponential decay kinetics and oscillations found in femtosecond absorption experiments stimulated many discussions. Today, part of these questions have been answered: e. g. it had been shown that the ET-reaction of native RC at room temperature seem to follow non-adiabatic ET-theory and that the monomeric intermediary BChl B_A as a real, but short-lived electron carrier.

© 1996 IEEE