Under high irradiance, light becomes dangerous for photosynthetic organisms and they must protect themselves. Cyanobacteria have developed a simple mechanism, involving a photoactive soluble carotenoid protein, the orange carotenoid protein (OCP), which increases thermal dissipation of excess energy by interacting with the cyanobacterial antenna, the phycobilisome. Here, we summarize our knowledge of the OCP-related photoprotective mechanism, including the remarkable progress that has been achieved in recent years on OCP photoactivation and interaction with phycobilisomes, as well as with the fluorescence recovery protein, which is necessary to end photoprotection. A recently discovered unique mechanism of carotenoid transfer between soluble proteins related to OCP is also described.

在高辐照度下，光对于光合作用生物变得危险，它们必须保护自己。蓝细菌已经开发出一种简单的机制，涉及一种光敏可溶性类胡萝卜素蛋白橙色类胡萝卜素蛋白（OCP），该蛋白通过与蓝细菌触角（藻藻体）相互作用，增加了多余能量的热耗散。在这里，我们总结了有关OCP相关光保护机制的知识，包括近年来在OCP光激活以及与藻胆体以及与荧光恢复蛋白相互作用方面取得的显着进展，这是结束光保护所必需的。还描述了最近发现的与OCP相关的可溶性蛋白之间类胡萝卜素转移的独特机制。