Nucleic acids molecular mechanics

Heinemeyer, T Chen, X., Karas, H., Kel, A. E., Kel, O. V., Liebich, I., Meinhardt, T., Reuter, I., Schacherer, F. Wingender, E. (1999). Expanding the TRANSFAC database towards an expert system of regulatory molecular mechanisms. Nucleic Acids Res 27,318-22. 

Data Correlation with Chemical Structure NMR Refinement Nucleic Acid Conformation and Flexibility Modeling Using Molecular Mechanics Nucleic Acid Force Fields Nucleic Acids Qualitative Modeling Object-oriented Programming. 

Assisted model building with energy refinement (AMBER) is the name of both a force field and a molecular mechanics program. It was parameterized specifically for proteins and nucleic acids. AMBER uses only five bonding and nonbonding terms along with a sophisticated electrostatic treatment. No cross terms are included. Results are very good for proteins and nucleic acids, but can be somewhat erratic for other systems. 

In Chapter 1 we saw that a major achievement of the first half of the twentieth cen tury was the picture of atomic and molecular structure revealed by quantum mechan ICS In this the last chapter we examine the major achievement of the second half of that century—a molecular view of genetics based on the structure and biochemistry of nucleic acids... 

Focuses on force field calculations for understanding the dynamic properties of proteins and nucleic acids. Provides a useful introduction to several computational techniques, including molecular mechanics minimization and molecular dynamics. Includes discussions of research involving structural changes and short time scale dynamics of these biomolecules, and the influence of solvent in these processes. 

Weiner, S.J. Kollman, P.A. Case, D.A. Singh, U.C., Ohio, C. Alagona, G. Profeta Jr., S. Weiner, P. Anew force field for molecular mechanical simulation of nucleic acids and proteins 7 Am. Chem. Soc. 106 765-784, 1984. 

Significant progress in the optimization of VDW parameters was associated with the development of the OPLS force field [53]. In those efforts the approach of using Monte Carlo calculations on pure solvents to compute heats of vaporization and molecular volumes and then using that information to refine the VDW parameters was first developed and applied. Subsequently, developers of other force fields have used this same approach for optimization of biomolecular force fields [20,21]. Van der Waals parameters may also be optimized based on calculated heats of sublimation of crystals [68], as has been done for the optimization of some of the VDW parameters in the nucleic acid bases [18]. Alternative approaches to optimizing VDW parameters have been based primarily on the use of QM data. Quantum mechanical data contains detailed information on the electron distribution around a molecule, which, in principle, should be useful for the optimization of VDW... 

A New Force Field for Molecular Mechanics Simulation of Nucleic Acids and Proteins... 

Cieplak, P., Caldwell, J. W., Kollman, P. A., Molecular mechanical models for organic and biological systems going beyond the atom centered two body additive approximation aqueous solution free energies of methanol and IV-methyl acetamide, nucleic acid base, and amide hydrogen bonding and chloroform/water partition coefficients of the nucleic acid bases, J. Comput. Chem. 2001, 22, 1048-1057... 

---