Molecular dynamics simulation sequence

How can we apply molecular dynamics simulations practically. This section gives a brief outline of a typical MD scenario. Imagine that you are interested in the response of a protein to changes in the amino add sequence, i.e., to point mutations. In this case, it is appropriate to divide the analysis into a static and a dynamic part. What we need first is a reference system, because it is advisable to base the interpretation of the calculated data on changes compared with other simulations. By taking this relative point of view, one hopes that possible errors introduced due to the assumptions and simplifications within the potential energy function may cancel out. All kinds of simulations, analyses, etc., should always be carried out for the reference and the model systems, applying the same simulation protocols. 

Example Molecular dynamics simulations of selected portions of proteins can demonstrate the motion of an amino acid sequence while fixing the terminal residues. These simulations can probe the motion of an alpha helix, keeping the ends restrained, as occurs n atiirally m transmembrane proteins. You can also investigate the conformations of loops with fixed endpoints. 

The theory was very similar to that described earlier, but was simplified in view of the complexity of the problem. A number of reaction intermediates were considered explicitly, and the corresponding signals were calculated by molecular dynamics simulation. Kinetic equations governing the reaction sequence were established and were solved numerically. The main simplification of the theory is that, when calculating A5[r, r], the lower limit of the Fourier integral was shifted from 0 to a small value q. The authors wrote [59]... 

This sequence of states is a discrete representation of the continuous dynamical trajectory starting from zo at time t = 0 and ending at z at time t = . Such a discrete trajectory may, for instance, result from a molecular dynamics simulation, in which the equations of motion of the system are integrated in small time steps. A trajectory can also be viewed as a high-dimensional object whose description includes time as an additional variable. Accordingly, the discrete states on a trajectory are also called time slices. 

To simulate the particle-particle collision, the hard-sphere model, which is based on the conservation law for linear momentum and angular momentum, is used. Two empirical parameters, a restitution coefficient of 0.9 and a friction coefficient of 0.3, are utilized in the simulation. In this study, collisions between spherical particles are assumed to be binary and quasi-instantaneous. The equations, which follow those of molecular dynamic simulation, are used to locate the minimum flight time of particles before any collision. Compared with the soft-sphere particle-particle collision model, the hard-sphere model accounts for the rotational particle motion in the collision dynamics calculation thus, only the translational motion equation is required to describe the fluid induced particle motion. In addition, the hard-sphere model also permits larger time steps in the calculation therefore, the simulation of a sequence of collisions can be more computationally effective. The details of this approach can be found in the literature (Hoomans et al., 1996 Crowe et al., 1998). 

CNTs can also be encapsulated with DNA molecules. As shown in Fig. 9.1, a DNA molecule could be spontaneously inserted into a SWNT in a water solution via molecular dynamics simulation (Gao et al., 2003). The van der Waals and hydrophobic forces were very key factors for the insertion process, with the former playing a more dominant role in the course of DNA entering into the hole of CNT. Experiment also confirmed that Pt-labeled DNA molecules can be encapsulated into multi-walled carbon nanotubes in water solution at 400 K and 3 Bar as shown in Fig. 9.2 (Cui et al., 2004). The CNTs filled with DNA molecules have potential in applications such as gene delivery system, and electronic sequencing, nanomotor, etc. 

RIS theory provides a relatively simle formalism for the evaluation of the persistence vector, a, for a chain that can be represented by a repeating sequence of independent virtual bonds such as polybenzobisoxazole (PBOI and polybenzobisthiazole IPBT). The present study combines RIS theory with long molecular dynamics simulations for small fragments in order to evaluate the limiting length of a for very stiff chains. The approach can be applied to other stiff chain polymers. 

P R E CONTENTS Preface. Stable-Isotope Assisted Protein NMR Spectroscopy in Solution, Brian J. Stockman and John L. Mar-kley. 31P and 1H Two-Dimensional NMR and NOESY-Dis-tance Restrained Molecular Dynamics Methodologies for Defining Sequence-Specific Variations in Duplex Oligonucleotides, David G. Gorenstein, Robert P. Meadows, James T. Metz, Edward Nikonowcz and Carol Beth Post. NMR Study of B- and Z-DNA Hairpins of d[(CG) 3T4(CG)3] in Solution, Sa-toshi Ikuta and Yu-Sen Wang. Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Carbohydrate Molecules, J.W. Brady. Diversity in the Structure of Hemes, Russell Timkovich and Laureano L. Bon-doc. Index. Volume 2,1991, 180 pp. 112.50/E72.50 ISBN 1-55938-396-8... 

Crown ethers continue to be one of the most useful parts of supramolecular chemistry/91 From the beginning computations of metal ions complexes with synthetic ionophores/101 which have been aptly reviewed/111 emphasized the importance of including explicitly solvation in free energy calculations, also with ab initio calculations on calixarene complexes/121 Molecular dynamics simulations of 18-crown-6 ether complexes in aqueous solutions predict too low affinities, but at least correctly reproduce the sequence trend K+ > Rb+ > Cs+ > Na+. However, only the selection of K+ over Rb+ and Cs+ is ascribed to the cation size relative to that of the crown cavity, whereas K+ appears in these calculations to be selected over Na+ as consequence of the greater free energy penalty involved in displacing water molecules ftomNa/1131... 

For the Tar—Tar kissing loops, the P—B calculations are unable to discern their propensity to accumulate counterions accumulation at the loop—loop interface (data not shown). This is because the fully hydrated ions as defined by the Stem layer cannot penetrate into the central cation binding pocket (data not shown). Similarly, the axial spine of counterion density observed in the A-RNA helix (Fig. 20.5) is not captured by the P—B calculation (Fig. 20.7). No noticeable sequence specificity is observed in the counterion accumulation patterns in the P—B calculations, even though the sequence effects are explicitly represented in the P—B calculation through the appropriate geometry and assignment of point-charges. This is because the sequence specificity observed in the molecular dynamics simulations usually involves first shell interactions of base moieties with partially dehydrated ions, which cannot be accurately represented in the P—B framework. 

A different influence on membrane order and dynamics was reported for an amphiphilic peptide in two investigations employing both 2H-NMR measurements and molecular dynamics simulations [80]. Two model peptides were studied having the sequence... 

In order to interpret the results of our experiments, optimal-control calculations were performed where a GA controlled 40 independent degrees of freedom in the laser pulses that were used in a molecular dynamics simulation of the laser-cluster interactions for Xejv clusters with sizes ranging from 108 to 5056 atoms/cluster. These calculations, which are reported in detail elsewhere [67], showed optimization of the laser-cluster interactions by a sequence of as many as three laser pulses. Detailed inspection of the simulations revealed that the first pulse in this sequence initiates the cluster ionization and starts the expansion of the cluster, while the second and third pulse optimize two mechanisms that are directly related to the behaviour of the electrons in the cluster. We consistently observe that the second pulse in the three-pulse sequence arrives a time delay where the conditions for enhanced ionization are met. In other words, the second pulse arrives at a time where the ionization of atoms is assisted by the proximity of surrounding ions. The third peak is consistently observed at a delay where the collective oscillation of the quasi-free electrons in the cluster is 7t/2 out of phase with respect to the driving laser field. For a driven and damped oscillator this phase-delay represents an optimum for the energy transfer from the driving force to the oscillator. 

Langley DR (1998) Molecular dynamic simulations of environment and sequence dependent DNA conformations the development of the BMS nucleic acid force field and comparison with experimental results, J Biomol Struct, 16 487—509... 

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