THE COMPLEXITY OF THE FLUORESCENCE OF CHLORELLA PYRENOIDOSA

Abstract— The complexity of the room-temperature emission spectrum of Chlorella was investigated by a matrix analysis method. This approach revealed the presence of two independently fluorescent components in the short-wave region of the spectrum. These components, maximal at about 687 and 695 nm, appeared to correspond to the fluorescence of the bulk pigments of PS II and PS I respectively. The analysis was insensitive to the individual species within the photosystems. As such, other minor fluorescent species, usually observed at low temperatures, which presumably correspond to fluorescence from the trapping centres, did not appreciably complicate the analysis. The absorption spectra of the two photosystems were calculated from the fluorescence data. The results were similar to those that have been obtained by other workers from oxygen evolution and DCMU poisoning data but differed from those obtained by computer analysis of the absorption spectrum. Addition of reduced DCPIP was observed to reverse the increase in fluorescence yield and changes in the spectral distribution of emission taking place on poisoning the algae. The correlation between this and the catalysis of photophos-phorylation in aged or poisoned chloroplasts was noted. This correlation was tentatively interpreted as evidence for a direct interaction between the donor system and the photochemical apparatus associated with PS II, rather than with a member of the electron transport chain as is normally assumed.