Electronic excitation transport in core antennae of enriched photosystem I particles from spinach chloroplasts

The polarized photobleaching recovery of PSI-60 particles enriched in iron-sulfur protein and P700 was monitored with approx. 2-ps resolution at 665, 670, 675, and 681 nm. Considerable residual anisotropy appears at long times, proving that local ordering exists in the Chl a-protein core antenna of PSI-60. At these four wavelengths, the polarization decays with mean lifetimes between 2.9 and 6.6 ps. This slow time scale suggests that the depolarization accompanies electronic excitation transport between clusters of Chl a chromophores rather than between individual nearest-neighbor chromophores.