Kinetics of Initial Charge Separation in the Photosynthetic Reaction Centers of Rhodobacter sphaeroides

A stochastic kinetic study of the initial electron transfer reaction in the reaction centers of wild-type and different mutants of photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides is suggested. The present approach to the disorder-driven complex kinetics skilfully offers an alternative to the earlier dynamic analyses. Exploiting a rational description of the reaction coordinate, effected by the relaxation of the surrounding protein environment, the measured kinetics were reproduced quantitatively. Notably, comparisons of the extracted relative free energies of electron transfer for the selected mutants and the available independent electrochemical estimates show exact agreement in some cases.