Is orange carotenoid protein photoactivation a single-photon process?

In all published photoactivation mechanisms of orange carotenoid protein (OCP), absorption of a single photon by the orange dark state starts a cascade of red-shifted OCP ground-state intermediates that subsequently decay within hundreds of milliseconds, resulting in the formation of the final red form OCPR , which is the biologically active form that plays a key role in cyanobacteria photoprotection. A major challenge in deducing the photoactivation mechanism is to create a uniform description explaining both single-pulse excitation experiments, involving single-photon absorption, and continuous light irradiation experiments, where the red-shifted OCP intermediate species may undergo re-excitation. We thus investigated photoactivation of Synechocystis OCP using stationary irradiation light with a biologically relevant photon flux density coupled with nanosecond laser pulse excitation. The kinetics of photoactivation upon continuous and nanosecond pulse irradiation light show that the OCPR formation quantum yield increases with photon flux density; thus, a simple single-photon model cannot describe the data recorded for OCP in vitro. The results strongly suggest a consecutive absorption of two photons involving a red intermediate with =100 millisecond lifetime. This intermediate is required in the photoactivation mechanism and formation of the red active form OCPR.WHY IT MATTERS We question whether the OCPO/OCPR photoconversion can be completed upon absorption of only a single photon, as implicitly assumed in the literature. This quest is important from a biological point of view, as one can expect that the photoactivation mechanism of OCP should be as selective as possible. The proposed two-photon mechanism fulfills this condition perfectly because it allows efficient OCP photoactivation (and quenching excited phycobilisomes) above a light threshold of around 1 mW/cm2 (= 40 mmol m-2 s-1) but not at low light conditions, where any dissipative mechanism is very unfavorable, because it would reduce photosynthesis efficiency. One should expect a clear evolutionary advantage for cyanobacteria possessing such a two-photon photoprotective mechanism compared with much less selective single-photon mechanism.