Experiments were performed to distinguish some of the proposed mechanisms by which thylakoid membranes regulate the performance of photosynthetic apparatus in relation to non-photochemical quenching, qN. Aliphatic diamines were used as uncouplers of transmembrane H+ gradient as they can be transported across the membrane at the expense of hydrogen cations. Diamines did not induce changes in low-temperature fluorescence emission but induced different changes in membrane ultrastructure. Positively charged peptides did not affect membrane ultrastructure but blocked qN. In addition, they caused an increase of low temperature fluorescence emission between 710 and 720 nm. For control peptide, the maximal fluorescence increase was found at 715 nm. Fragments of light-harvesting complex 2 in their phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated form shifted the position of this increase. We believe that peptides bind to membrane surface and reduce the mobility of membrane components whose migration is needed for observation of qN. Phosphorylated and non-phosphophorylated LHC2 fragments bind to different binding sites for corresponding forms of the protein. and D. Štys ... [et al.].