Effective Absorption Cross-Sections in Porphyridium cruentum: Implications for Energy Transfer between Phycobilisomes and Photosystem II Reaction Centers.

Effective absorption cross-sections for O(2) production by Porphyridium cruentum were measured at 546 and 596 nanometers. Although all photosystem II reaction centers are energetically coupled to phycobilisomes, any single phycobilisome acts as antenna for several photosystem II reaction centers. The cross-section measured in state I was 50% larger than that measured in state II.