[gmx-users] Splitted DMPC bilayer

Justin A. Lemkul jalemkul at vt.edu
Tue Apr 5 00:27:16 CEST 2011



Dr. Ramón Garduño-Juárez wrote:
> Justin,
> 
> Thank you for your comments after finishing the MD production run for up 
> to 20 ns...
> 
> Since this step was over very quickly, now I have a simple question  
> ¿How long, in human time, should a production run last?
> 

There is no way to answer that.  It depends on the hardware, number of atoms, 
system load, application of any number of the Gromacs algorithms, .mdp settings...

> The production run was carried out in six processors Intel Xeon (R) 
> E5405 2.00 GHz. The last few lines of the md_0_1.log are:
> 
> -----------------------------------------
>         Parallel run - timing based on wallclock.
> 
>                NODE (s)   Real (s)      (%)
>        Time: 180685.417 180685.417    100.0
>                        2d02h11:25
>                (Mnbf/s)   (GFlops)   (ns/day)  (hour/ns)
> Performance:    232.900     12.351      9.564      2.510
> -----------------------------------------
> 
> Is this correct?   In my opinion it should lasted much more longer...
> 

Nope, Gromacs is just fast :)

> Before reaching this point, this is an update of what we did...
> 
> First we eliminated the SOL_SOL group and the only special index group 
> was Protein_DMPC.
> 
> Since the NVT equilibration failed, we took option # 2 of the "Advanced 
> Troubleshooting", for the 1st phase of Equilibration.
> 
> After this step we proceeded with the equilibration phase 2 with a 1-ns 
> NPT equilibration which ended fine.
> 
> Next, we proceeded with a 20 ns production run. Thus, the modified lines 
> of the .mpd file found in the tutorial page were:
> 
> nsteps           =  10000000  ;  2 * 10000000  =  2000  ps   (20 ns)
> tc-grps          =  Protein DMPC  SOL
> comm-grps  =  Protein_DMPC  SOL
> 
> With this instructions the 20 ns simulation took  2d02h11:25
> 
> I believe the "error" comes from the line
> 
> constrains  =  all-bonds               which surely must be changed to
> 
> constrains  =  none     or      hbonds
> 

Why do you say that?  What error is occurring?  You said your simulations were 
running fine.  You most certainly should not remove constraints if you're 
sticking with a 2-fs timestep.  The system will be unstable without constraints. 
  You might be able to get away with hbonds, but certainly not "none."

-Justin

> Looking forward to your comments...
> 
> Much obliged,
> Ramon
> 
> El 30/03/2011 12:25 p.m., Justin A. Lemkul escribió:
>>
>>
>> Dr. Ramón Garduño-Juárez wrote:
>>> Dear all,
>>> Dear Justin,
>>>
>>> This time I want to ask the gurus about this problem I encountered in 
>>> the Equilibration step of my system made of 3 individual (small) 
>>> protein chains in a solvated DMPC bilayer, no ions present since the 
>>> protein system is neutral...
>>>
>>> Following the tutorial I started with
>>>
>>>  make_ndx_d -f em_after_solv.gro -o index_after_solv.ndx
>>>
>>> for which I got the following list:
>>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Reading structure file
>>> Going to read 0 old index file(s)
>>> Analysing residue names:
>>> There are:   129    Protein residues
>>> There are:   123      Other residues
>>> There are:  3215      Water residues
>>> Analysing Protein...
>>> Analysing residues not classified as Protein/DNA/RNA/Water and 
>>> splitting into groups...
>>>
>>>   0 System              : 16649 atoms
>>>   1 Protein             :  1346 atoms
>>>   2 Protein-H           :  1025 atoms
>>>   3 C-alpha             :   129 atoms
>>>   4 Backbone            :   387 atoms
>>>   5 MainChain           :   519 atoms
>>>   6 MainChain+Cb        :   636 atoms
>>>   7 MainChain+H         :   649 atoms
>>>   8 SideChain           :   697 atoms
>>>   9 SideChain-H         :   506 atoms
>>>  10 Prot-Masses         :  1346 atoms
>>>  11 non-Protein         : 15303 atoms
>>>  12 Other               :  5658 atoms
>>>  13 DMPC                :  5658 atoms
>>>  14 Water               :  9645 atoms
>>>  15 SOL                 :  9645 atoms
>>>  16 non-Water           :  7004 atoms
>>> -----------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Since I did not add ions I have formed a (merged) group named SOL_SOL 
>>
>> Why would you merge solvent with itself?
>>
>>> after chosing  15 | 15 , and another merged group named Protein_DMPC 
>>> by choosing  1 | 13...
>>>
>>> Next, I started the NVT equilibration with:
>>>
>>> grompp_d  -f nvt.mdp  -c em_after_solv.gro  -p 
>>> topol_mod_lip_solv.top  -n index_after_solv.ndx  -o nvt.tpr
>>>
>>> The nvt.mpd file is the same as the one given in the tutorial, the 
>>> only changes I made were:
>>>
>>> tc-grps            = Protein DMPC SOL_SOL
>>> and
>>> comm-grps    = Protein_DMPC SOL_SOL
>>>
>>
>> I would think that using this weird SOL_SOL group would create 
>> problems related to degrees of freedom, etc.  If you have no ions, 
>> there is no need to merge any sort of solvent-related groups.
>>
>>> After this I ran
>>>
>>> mdrun_mpi_d  -v  -deffnm nvt
>>>
>>> When this process is finished I looked at the resulting nvt.gro file 
>>> and found the following:
>>>
>>> 1) The 3 protein chains complex is fine, at the center of the box as 
>>> it should be, but
>>> 2) The 2 DMPC layer are separated (splitted) leaving a large gap 
>>> between them forming a )( shape where the top and bottom of this 
>>> figure contain one layer of DMPC plus water molecules, while in the 
>>> narrow section the protein complex is found... In the void between 
>>> the two DMPC layers no water molecules are present...  Very odd!...
>>>
>>> Please advice...
>>>
>>
>> This is covered in the "Advanced Troubleshooting" section of my tutorial:
>>
>> http://www.bevanlab.biochem.vt.edu/Pages/Personal/justin/gmx-tutorials/membrane_protein/advanced_troubleshooting.html 
>>
>>
>> -Justin
>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Ramon Garduno
>>>
>>

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

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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