The Mechanism Of Energy Transport Within The Membrane Of Thylakoid Disks
July 19th, 2005 | No Comments »The retinal molecule is the, ubiquitous to all receptors both cones and rods, energy activated, “electron sink endpoint” of the light detection process within each disk of the thylakoid stack. The function of the opsin protein that encloses the retinal molecule is purely structural providing appropriate size adjustment for each type of receptor. Energy from the light interaction is directed orthogonally to light entrance direction and is transferred following the proper dichroic orientation along the membrane of the thylakoid disk (within which the retinal/opsin complex is embedded) losslessly via a solitonic mechanism (a soliton is a “lossless phonon, i.e., basic mechanical energy transport). Lossless solitonic transport follows from the cholesterol molecule being intercalated between each lipid molecule that forms the backbone of the membrane (demonstrated in Kuhn’s “photon funnel” experiment - see text)
