光合作用为地球上几乎所有生命提供了初级能量来源。它的了不起的地方之一是，能量在由光合作用器官组成的可以利用光的复合物内传输的效率非常高。现在，对在光合作用核心的能量传输过程中可能涉及量子方式的怀疑，已经被一项新的光谱研究所证实。该研究显示，在来自绿硫菌的细菌叶绿素内存在波状能量运动典型的电子量子节拍。能量传输过程的这种波状特点可以解释光合作用的效率为什么极高，因为在光合作用中，巨大的相空间可以被有效搜索，从而找到能量传输效率最高的通道。
部分英文原文：
Nature 446, 782-786 (12 April 2007) | doi:10.1038/nature05678; Received 13 October 2006; Accepted 14 February 2007
Letter
Evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems
Gregory S. Engel1,2, Tessa R. Calhoun1,2, Elizabeth L. Read1,2, Tae-Kyu Ahn1,2, Tomá Manal1,2,5, Yuan-Chung Cheng1,2, Robert E. Blankenship3,4 & Graham R. Fleming1,2
Department of Chemistry & QB3 Institute, University of California, Berkeley
Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
Department of Biology,
Department of Chemistry, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
Present address: Institute of Physics of Charles University, 12116 Prague 2, Czech Republic.
Correspondence to: Graham R. Fleming1,2 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to G.R.F. (Email: grfleming@lbl.gov).
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Photosynthetic complexes are exquisitely tuned to capture solar light efficiently, and then transmit the excitation energy to reaction centres, where long term energy storage is initiated. The energy transfer mechanism is often described by semiclassical models that invoke 'hopping' of excited-state populations along discrete energy levels1, 2. Two-dimensional Fourier transform electronic spectroscopy3, 4, 5 has mapped6 these energy levels and their coupling in the Fenna–Matthews–Olson (FMO) bacteriochlorophyll complex, which is found in green sulphur bacteria and acts as an energy 'wire' connecting a large peripheral light-harvesting antenna, the chlorosome, to the reaction centre7, 8, 9. The spectroscopic data clearly document the dependence of the dominant energy transport pathways on the spatial properties of the excited-state wavefunctions of the whole bacteriochlorophyll complex6, 10. But the intricate dynamics of quantum coherence, which has no classical analogue, was largely neglected in the analyses—even though electronic energy transfer involving oscillatory populations of donors and acceptors was first discussed more than 70 years ago11, and electronic quantum beats arising from quantum coherence in photosynthetic complexes have been predicted12, 13 and indirectly observed14. Here we extend previous two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy investigations of the FMO bacteriochlorophyll complex, and obtain direct evidence for remarkably long-lived electronic quantum coherence playing an important part in energy transfer processes within this system. The quantum coherence manifests itself in characteristic, directly observable quantum beating signals among the excitons within the Chlorobium tepidum FMO complex at 77 K. This wavelike characteristic of the energy transfer within the photosynthetic complex can explain its extreme efficiency, in that it allows the complexes to sample vast areas of phase space to find the most efficient path.
