The role of chirality and plastic crystallinity in the optical and mechanical properties of chlorosomes

The most efficient light-harvesting antennae found in nature, chlorosomes, are molecular tubular aggregates (TMAs) assembled by pigments without protein scaffolds. Here, we discuss a classification of chlorosomes as a unique tubular plastic crystal and we attribute the robust energy transfer in chlorosomes to this unique nature. To systematically study the role of supramolecular tube chirality by molecular simulation, a role that has remained unresolved, we share a protocol for generating realistic tubes at atomic resolution. We find that both the optical and the mechanical behavior are strongly dependent on chirality. The optical-chirality relation enables a direct interpretation of experimental spectra in terms of overall tube chirality. The mechanical response shows that the overall chirality regulates the hardness of the tube and provides a new characteristic for relating chlorosomes to distinct chirality. Our protocol also applies to other TMA systems and will inspire other systematic studies beyond lattice models.