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How dinoflagellates protect themselves during photosynthesis • Find More Articles Like This One • December 7, 2009 11:00 pm

During photosynthesis at high light intensities dangerous oxygen radicals can form inside cells. Dinoflagellates have a unique light-harvesting complex (antenna) which can divert superfluous energy extremely efficiently to avoid this cell damage. Biophysicists have now been able to determine which molecules in the antenna are of significance. In the complex four carotenoid molecules cluster around a central chlorophyll molecule. The researchers were able to identify one specific carotenoid as a type of integrated lightning rod. It interacts with a “short-living” (nanosecond range, one millionth of a millisecond), energetically activated state of the chlorophyll and diverts the superfluous energy as soon as the chlorophyll passes into a “long-living” (microsecond range, a thousandth of a millisecond) energy state dangerous for the cell.

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