A HIGH-PERFORMANCE FLUOROMETER FOR STUDYING THE PHOTOSYNTHETIC PROCESS

Extensive research over the last several years in the domain of photob iology has focused on the structure and function of the photosynthetic complexes in the thylakoid membrane. The number of phases in fluoresc ence induction and the identification of the possible heterogeneities of photosystem II are debated. Until now, the instrumentation used to measure the fluorescence induction do not permit accurate determinatio n of all photosynthetic parameters in the first millisecond of inducti on. Moreover, the usual methods of analysis used to find the number of phases in the fluorescence induction present numerical problems, incl uding the lack of resolution. In this study, we show that the use of t he newly developed transparent substrate AlInGaP light-emitting diode as light source permits accurate determination of variable fluorescenc e kinetics. We prove that the use of the Generalized Pade-Laplace meth od permits the resolution of several exponentials without any hypothes is as to the number of components. The experimental tests show that ou r instrumentation presents advanced features for accurate measurement of fluorescence transients useful in studying the photosynthetic appar atus.