Light-harvesting is a crucial step of photosynthesis. Its mechanisms and related energetics have been revealed by a combination of experimental investigations and theoretical modeling. The success of theoretical modeling is largely due to the application of atomistic descriptions combining quantum chemistry, classical models and molecular dynamics techniques. Besides the important achievements obtained so far, a complete and quantitative understanding of how the many different light-harvesting complexes exploit their structural specificity is still missing. Moreover, many questions remain unanswered regarding the mechanisms through which light-harvesting is regulated in response to variable light conditions. Here we show that, in both fields, a major role will be played once more by atomistic descriptions, possibly generalized to tackle the numerous time and space scales on which the regulation takes place: going from the ultrafast electronic excitation of the multichromophoric aggregate, through the subsequent conformational changes in the embedding protein, up to the interaction between proteins.

中文翻译：

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采光及其光调节原子建模的成功与挑战。

采光是光合作用的关键步骤。通过实验研究和理论建模相结合，揭示了其机理和相关的能量学。理论建模的成功很大程度上归功于结合了量子化学，经典模型和分子动力学技术的原子描述的应用。除了迄今获得的重要成就外，仍然缺少对许多不同的光收集复合物如何利用其结构特异性的完整和定量的了解。此外，关于响应可变的光照条件调节采光的机制，许多问题仍未得到解答。在这里，我们表明，在这两个领域中，原子描述将再次扮演主要角色，