[gmx-users] Discrepancy between -chargegrp and -nochargegrp in simulations with CHARMM ff, Why ?

Justin A. Lemkul jalemkul at vt.edu
Sat Nov 27 04:44:15 CET 2010



Francesco Oteri wrote:
> To see if the problem is force-field related, you could try to run the 
> same simulations using amber-ff.
> If you will find the same results, probably is a software bug.
> 

Some Amber parameter sets (Amber94, I think) have issues of being overly 
"helix-friendly," but perhaps other force fields, in general, might make for 
good comparisons.  But then, too, Gromos96 over-stabilizes extended 
conformations, so buyer beware...

> Maybe the bug has been introduced in the version 4 when the Domain 
> Decomposition has been introduced.
> You can check if it is a software problem using the 3.3.3 version.
> 

I doubt that would work.  There have been many code changes in order to 
implement CHARMM.  If anything, try mdrun -pd to use the old particle 
decomposition mode, but I would be very hesitant to blindly say that DD might be 
causing this behavior.

-Justin

> 
> 
> 
> Il 25/11/2010 23:42, sa ha scritto:
>> Dear All,
>>
>> In a previous message 
>> (http://lists.gromacs.org/pipermail/gmx-users/2010-November/055839.html), 
>> I described the results obtained with MD performed with the CHARMM27 
>> ff and the chargegrp "yes" and "no" options of a peptide in TIP3P 
>> water simulated gromacs. Since these results puzzled me a lot, i would 
>> like to share with you others results obtained from the gromacs 
>> community advices to explain these results.
>>
>> In few words, the context of these simulations. One of my labmate did, 
>> 8 months ago (march/april), several simulations of a peptide (25 AA) 
>> with the CHARMM27 ff (and CMAP). The peptide is a transmembrane 
>> segment (TM) and belongs to a large membrane protein. This TM segment 
>> has an initial helical conformation. The simulations were performed in 
>> a cubic box filled with app. 14000 TIP3P water (Jorgensen's model) 
>> with 2 Cl ions. To construct the topology file of the system, 
>> -chargegrp "yes" with pdb2gmx and the MD were done with the gromacs 
>> 4.0.5. For some reasons, he had to left the lab, and my boss asked me 
>> to continue his work. When I checked their results, i was very 
>> intrigued by these MD results because he found that the peptide keep 
>> along all the simulation time (100 ns) its initial helical 
>> conformation. This results are not in agreement with circular 
>> dichroism experiments which are shown that the same peptide in water 
>> has no helix segment and is completely unfold. I am aware that the 
>> simulation time is short compared to experiment time scale, however 
>> since i haven't seen any unfolding events in this simulation, so I was 
>> not very confident about these results.
>>
>> To explain this inconsistency, I have suspected that the error came 
>> probably of the use of the default -chargegrp with CHARMM ff in these 
>> simulations since i have read several recent threads about the charge 
>> groups problems in the CHARMM ff implementation in gromacs. To examine 
>> this hypothesis I have done two simulations with last gromacs version 
>> (4.5.3) and two top files containing charge groups and no charge 
>> groups for the peptide residus. I used  the *same* initial pdb file, 
>> box size and simulations parameters. The two simulations were carried 
>> out during 24 ns in the NPT ensemble with the md.mdp parameters 
>> described below after energy minimisation, NVT and NPT equilibration 
>> steps.
>>
>> constraints     = all-bonds
>> integrator      = md
>> nsteps          = 12000000   ; 24000ps ou 24ns
>> dt              = 0.002
>>
>> nstlist         = 10
>> nstcalcenergy   = 10
>> nstcomm         = 10
>>
>> continuation    = no            ; Restarting after NPT
>> vdw-type        = cut-off
>> rvdw            = 1.0
>> rlist                   = 0.9
>> coulombtype              = PME
>> rcoulomb                 = 0.9
>> fourierspacing           = 0.12
>> fourier_nx               = 0
>> fourier_ny               = 0
>> fourier_nz               = 0
>> pme_order                = 4
>> ewald_rtol               = 1e-05
>> optimize_fft            = yes
>>
>> nstvout         = 50000
>> nstxout         = 50000
>> nstenergy       = 20000
>> nstlog          = 5000          ; update log file every 10 ps
>> nstxtcout       = 1000         ; frequency to write coordinates to xtc 
>> trajectory every 2 ps
>>
>> Tcoupl          = nose-hoover
>> tc-grps         = Protein Non-Protein
>> tau-t           = 0.4 0.4
>> ref-t           = 298 298
>> ; Pressure coupling is on
>> Pcoupl          = Parrinello-Rahman
>> pcoupltype      = isotropic
>> tau_p           = 3.0
>> compressibility = 4.5e-5
>> ref_p           = 1.0135
>> gen_vel         = no
>>
>> I found that with charge groups, the peptide remains in its initial 
>> helical conformation, whereas with no charge group, the peptide 
>> unfolds quickly and has a random coil conformation. I have shown these 
>> results to my boss but I was not able to explain why we observe these 
>> differences between the two simulations. Indeed since i use PME in the 
>> MD, chargegroup should not affect the dynamic results (correct ?) . He 
>> asked to do others simulations with different versions of gromacs to 
>> see if is not a bug with charge group implementation in gromacs. For 
>> testing i have done four others MD wit the *same* initial pdb file, 
>> box size and simulations parameters and with previous GMX version 
>> 4.5.0 and pre 4.5.2 and with the two types of top files.
>>
>> In addition since i have done simulations with non optimal parameter  
>> for the vdW et electrostatic, i have also tested the influence of the 
>> vdW et electrostatic MD parameters on the MD by performing two 
>> additional simulations with the parameters  used in the Bjelkmar et al 
>> . paper (J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2010, 6, 459–466)  (labeled GMX4.5.3 
>> CHARMM in the figures)
>>
>> ; Run parameters
>> integrator      = md            ; leap-frog integrator
>> nsteps          = 12000000      ; 2 * 1000000 = 20000 ps
>> dt              = 0.002         ; 2 fs
>> nstcomm         = 10
>> nstcalcenergy   = 10
>> ; Output control
>> nstxtcout       = 1000         ; frequency to write coordinates to xtc 
>> trajectory every 10 ps
>> nstxout         = 50000
>> nstvout         = 50000         ; save velocities every 0.2 ps
>> nstenergy       = 25000         ; save energies every 0.2 ps
>> nstlog          = 5000          ; update log file every 0.2 ps
>> energygrps      = protein Non-Protein
>> ; Bond parameters
>> continuation    = yes            ; continuation after NVT
>> constraint_algorithm = lincs    ; holonomic constraints
>> constraints     = all-bonds     ; all bonds (even heavy atom-H bonds) 
>> constrained
>> lincs_iter      = 1             ; accuracy of LINCS
>> lincs_order     = 4             ; also related to accuracy
>> ; Neighborsearching
>> ns_type         = grid          ; search neighboring grid cels
>> nstlist         = 10            ; 20 fs
>> rlist           = 1.2
>> ;
>> coulombtype              = PME
>> rcoulomb-switch          = 0
>> rcoulomb                 = 1.2
>> vdw-type                 = Switch
>> ; cut-off lengths
>> rvdw-switch              = 1.0
>> rvdw                     = 1.2
>> DispCorr                 = EnerPres
>> table-extension          = 5
>> fourierspacing           = 0.14
>> fourier_nx               = 0
>> fourier_ny               = 0
>> fourier_nz               = 0
>> pme_order                = 4
>> ewald_rtol               = 1e-05
>> ewald_geometry           = 3d
>> epsilon_surface          = 0
>> optimize_fft             = no
>> ; Temperature coupling is on
>> tcoupl          = nose-hoover ;
>> tc-grps         = protein Non-Protein   ; one coupling groups - more 
>> accurate
>> tau_t           = 0.4 0.4       ; time constant, in ps
>> ref_t           = 297 297       ; reference temperature, one for each 
>> group, in K
>> ; Pressure coupling is off
>> pcoupl          = Parrinello-Rahman             ; pressure coupling in 
>> NPT
>> pcoupltype      = isotropic
>> tau_p           = 3.0
>> compressibility = 4.5e-5
>> ref_p           = 1.0135
>>
>> ; Periodic boundary conditions
>> pbc             = xyz               ; 3-D PBC
>> gen_vel         = no
>>
>> The results are presented in the three figures accessibles with the 
>> three links below
>>
>> http://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/586637ResultatsVSGMX1jpg.jpg   -> 
>> Conformation
>> http://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/392578ResultatsVSGMX2jpg.jpg   -> 
>> RMSD vs. time
>> http://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/271597ResultatsVSGMX3jpg.jpg   -> 
>> Secondary structure vs. time
>>
>> As you can see in all runs with no charge groups option, the peptide 
>> quickly unfolds and have a random coil  conformation during the  end 
>> of the simulation times, whereas with charge group option, the peptide 
>> remains in its initial (helix) conformation whatever the gromacs 
>> version used.
>>
>> To finish I saw that in all the simulation seems to be well conserved
>>
>> CHARGE GROUP 4.5.3 (along the 24 ns of the run)
>>
>> Energy                      Average   Err.Est.       RMSD  Tot-Drift
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>
>> Potential                   -561452        5.6    774.891   -1.37923  
>> (kJ/mol)
>> Total Energy                -455901        5.6    959.234   -1.42286  
>> (kJ/mol)
>>
>> NO_CHARGE GROUP 4.5.3 (along the 24 ns of the run)
>>
>> Energy                      Average   Err.Est.       RMSD  Tot-Drift
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>
>> Potential                   -563934         18    774.632    -113.02  
>> (kJ/mol)
>> Total Energy                -458347         18    960.371   -112.951  
>> (kJ/mol)
>>
>> CHARGE GROUP pre4.5.2 (along the 24 ns of the run)
>>
>> Energy                      Average   Err.Est.       RMSD  Tot-Drift
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>
>> Potential                   -562415        5.1     777.12   -33.8615  
>> (kJ/mol)
>> Total Energy                -456864        5.1    964.365   -33.7504  
>> (kJ/mol)
>>
>> NO_CHARGE_GROUP_PRE_4.5.2
>>
>> Energy                      Average   Err.Est.       RMSD  Tot-Drift
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>
>> Potential                   -564899        4.6    778.002   -3.00182  
>> (kJ/mol)
>> Total Energy                -459312        4.6    963.702   -2.58102  
>> (kJ/mol)
>>
>> NO_CHARGE_GROUP_PRE_4.5.0
>>
>> Energy                      Average   Err.Est.       RMSD  Tot-Drift
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>
>> Potential                   -563933         30    777.279   -202.641  
>> (kJ/mol)
>> Total Energy                -458346         29    960.748   -202.578  
>> (kJ/mol)
>>
>> CHARGE_GROUP_PRE_4.5.0
>>
>> Energy                      Average   Err.Est.       RMSD  Tot-Drift
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>
>> Potential                   -561442          8    773.826   -49.7596  
>> (kJ/mol)
>> Total Energy                -455891          8    958.546   -49.7573  
>> (kJ/mol)
>>
>> USE_CHARGE_GROUP_AND_GMX_4.5.3 AND CHARMM parameters settings
>>
>> Energy                      Average   Err.Est.       RMSD  Tot-Drift
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>
>> Potential                   -566048        5.4    765.184   -31.6659  
>> (kJ/mol)
>> Total Energy                -460851        5.4    950.934   -31.7008  
>> (kJ/mol)
>>
>> USE_NO_CHARGE_GROUP_AND_GMX_4.5.3 AND CHARMM parameters settings
>>
>> Energy                      Average   Err.Est.       RMSD  Tot-Drift
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>
>> Potential                   -568520         24    770.264   -165.498  
>> (kJ/mol)
>> Total Energy                -463287         24    955.755   -165.768  
>> (kJ/mol)
>>
>> I am particularly eager to obtain from you some comments and advices 
>> about these findings. Thanks you so much for your help.
>>
>> SA
> 

-- 
========================================

Justin A. Lemkul
Ph.D. Candidate
ICTAS Doctoral Scholar
MILES-IGERT Trainee
Department of Biochemistry
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA
jalemkul[at]vt.edu | (540) 231-9080
http://www.bevanlab.biochem.vt.edu/Pages/Personal/justin

========================================



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