Molecular dynamics

About: Molecular dynamics is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 22482 publications have been published within this topic receiving 800625 citations. The topic is also known as: molecular dynamics.

Calculating Structures and Free Energies of Complex Molecules: Combining Molecular Mechanics and Continuum Models

Abstract: A historical perspective on the application of molecular dynamics (MD) to biological macromolecules is presented. Recent developments combining state-of-the-art force fields with continuum solvation calculations have allowed us to reach the fourth era of MD applications in which one can often derive both accurate structure and accurate relative free energies from molecular dynamics trajectories. We illustrate such applications on nucleic acid duplexes, RNA hairpins, protein folding trajectories, and protein−ligand, protein−protein, and protein−nucleic acid interactions.

Semianalytical treatment of solvation for molecular mechanics and dynamics

Abstract: sorption results9 revealed that the iron surface was mostly covered by promoter oxides of AI, Ca, and K. Postreaction XPS results also revealed a C( Is) XPS peak of weak to moderate intensity centered at 284.1-283.7 eV. This binding energy approaches those (ca. 283.5 eV) reported for iron cat bide^.^^*'^ More convincing evidence for carbide formation was obtained from TPHT results collected after reaction studies like those displayed in Figure 1 in which methane was the only product. After reaction at temperatures below 340 OC, only small amounts of reactive carbon could be distinguished with maximum methane desorption rates near 300 OC. However, for higher reaction temperatures, large amounts of methane were produced with a maximum rate just above 400 OC. Since XPS results revealed only small amounts of carbonaceous residue on top of the catalyst surface, this reactive carbon must be associated with carbiding of the catalyst. Consequently, it appears that the active carbon incorporation catalyst is carbided iron. This conclusion is well supported by bulk carbon to iron stoichiometries of 0.1-0.25 estimated from the TPHT peak areas which were adequate to represent 40-60'36 conversion to bulk carbides such as Fe,C or FeSC2. Moreover, preliminary results from studies using bona fide iron carbides have shown similar catalytic b e h a ~ i o r . ~

Update of the CHARMM All-Atom Additive Force Field for Lipids: Validation on Six Lipid Types

Abstract: A significant modification to the additive all-atom CHARMM lipid force field (FF) is developed and applied to phospholipid bilayers with both choline and ethanolamine containing head groups and with both saturated and unsaturated aliphatic chains. Motivated by the current CHARMM lipid FF (C27 and C27r) systematically yielding values of the surface area per lipid that are smaller than experimental estimates and gel-like structures of bilayers well above the gel transition temperature, selected torsional, Lennard-Jones and partial atomic charge parameters were modified by targeting both quantum mechanical (QM) and experimental data. QM calculations ranging from high-level ab initio calculations on small molecules to semiempirical QM studies on a 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayer in combination with experimental thermodynamic data were used as target data for parameter optimization. These changes were tested with simulations of pure bilayers at high hydration of the following six lipids: ...

Extending the treatment of backbone energetics in protein force fields: limitations of gas-phase quantum mechanics in reproducing protein conformational distributions in molecular dynamics simulations.

Abstract: Computational studies of proteins based on empirical force fields represent a powerful tool to obtain structure-function relationships at an atomic level, and are central in current efforts to solve the protein folding problem. The results from studies applying these tools are, however, dependent on the quality of the force fields used. In particular, accurate treatment of the peptide backbone is crucial to achieve representative conformational distributions in simulation studies. To improve the treatment of the peptide backbone, quantum mechanical (QM) and molecular mechanical (MM) calculations were undertaken on the alanine, glycine, and proline dipeptides, and the results from these calculations were combined with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of proteins in crystal and aqueous environments. QM potential energy maps of the alanine and glycine dipeptides at the LMP2/cc-pVxZ//MP2/6-31G* levels, where x = D, T, and Q, were determined, and are compared to available QM studies on these molecules. The LMP2/cc-pVQZ//MP2/6-31G* energy surfaces for all three dipeptides were then used to improve the MM treatment of the dipeptides. These improvements included additional parameter optimization via Monte Carlo simulated annealing and extension of the potential energy function to contain peptide backbone phi, psi dihedral crossterms or a phi, psi grid-based energy correction term. Simultaneously, MD simulations of up to seven proteins in their crystalline environments were used to validate the force field enhancements. Comparison with QM and crystallographic data showed that an additional optimization of the phi, psi dihedral parameters along with the grid-based energy correction were required to yield significant improvements over the CHARMM22 force field. However, systematic deviations in the treatment of phi and psi in the helical and sheet regions were evident. Accordingly, empirical adjustments were made to the grid-based energy correction for alanine and glycine to account for these systematic differences. These adjustments lead to greater deviations from QM data for the two dipeptides but also yielded improved agreement with experimental crystallographic data. These improvements enhance the quality of the CHARMM force field in treating proteins. This extension of the potential energy function is anticipated to facilitate improved treatment of biological macromolecules via MM approaches in general.