Biology 1001A Lecture Notes - Opsin, Electron Transport Chain, Rhodopsin
5 Mar 2014
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Document Summary
Relationship between excited states of a pigment and its absorption, fluorescence emission spectra - Region of the electromagnetic spectrum known as visible light - Visible region only from 400nm to 700nm (violet to red) Relationship between wavelength and energy content of a photon - Energy of a photon is inversely proportional to its wavelength; the shorter the wavelength, the higher the energy content and vice versa. Molecular characteristic of visible pigments that make them able to absorb light - Pigments have a conjugated system, meaning that there is an alternation between double and single bonds, which results in many non-bonding pi orbital electrons. These non-bonding electrons interact with the photons of light and because they do not bond, they are readily available to absorb light. Exceptions include retinal as it involves bonding electrons. Pigments are not freely floating around, they are bound to proteins and form a pigment- protein complex.
