circular dichroism; non-photochemical quenching; protein-lipid interactions; proteoliposomes; time-resolved fluorescence; thylakoid lipids

The quenching of chlorophyll-a fluorescence was investigated in plant light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) embedded in reconstituted membranes containing thylakoid lipids and a lipid label. The proteoliposomes were further separated by density and the protein and lipid contents of the fractions were quantified spectrophotometrically, allowing tighter control over the L/P ratios in a wide range of values. Using time-resolved fluorescence, we found a strong correlation between the fluorescence quenching and the L/P ratio, in line with other studies reporting progressive quenching at low L/P ratios, presumably triggered by self-clustering in the membrane.