[gmx-users] Energy minimization Error

Justin A. Lemkul jalemkul at vt.edu
Thu Feb 9 17:41:17 CET 2012



francesca vitalini wrote:
> Hi all!
> I'm trying to run some energy minimization with gromacs 3.3.1 on a 
> system that I have transformed from cg to aa. After the reverse 
> transformation I solvate the system and I try to minimize just the 
> proteins (my system is a dimer) keeping fixed the water. Then the idea 
> would be to minimize the water keeping the protein in harmonic distance 
> constraints as I just want to obtain an aa system which describes the 
> configuration obtained previously in the cg representation.
> So, I first use genrestr to create the .itp file for fixing the position 
> of the water, then I run 10 ps of EM and what I get is the following 
> error message:
> 
> Stepsize too small, or no change in energy.
> Converged to machine precision,
> but not to the requested precision Fmax < 10
> 
> Double precision normally gives you higher accuracy.
> You might need to increase your constraint accuracy, or turn
> off constraints alltogether (set constraints = none in mdp file)
> 
>  From what I've read in previous posts the problem might be either in 
> the mdp file or in the topology, but I don't understand what have I made 
> wrong. Here is my mdp file
> 

The other possibility is that there is no problem at all.  Some systems cannot 
be minimized below certain thresholds, based on the input geometry.  You may 
also want to try a different minimizer or double precision.

http://www.gromacs.org/Documentation/Errors#Stepsize_too_small.2c_or_no_change_in_energy._Converged_to_machine_precision.2c_but_not_to_the_requested_precision

-Justin

>  Lines starting with ';' ARE COMMENTS
> ; Everything following ';' is also comment
> 
> title           = Energy Minimization   ; Title of run
> 
> ; The following line tell the program the standard locations where to 
> find certain files
> cpp             = /lib/cpp      ; Preprocessor
> 
> ; Define can be used to control processes
> define          = -DEPOSRES
> ;define           = -DFLEXIBLE
> ; Parameters describing what to do, when to stop and what to save
> integrator      = steep         ; Algorithm (steep = steepest descent 
> minimization)
> emtol           = 10.0          ; Stop minimization when the maximum 
> force < 1.0 kJ/mol
> dt                       = 0.005
> ;nsteps                   = 2000
> nsteps          = 5000          ; Maximum number of (minimization) steps 
> to perform
> nstenergy       = 1             ; Write energies to disk every nstenergy 
> steps
> energygrps      = System        ; Which energy group(s) to write to disk
> 
> ; Parameters describing how to find the neighbors of each atom and how 
> to calculate the interactions
> nstlist         = 1             ; Frequency to update the neighbor list
> ns_type         = grid          ; Method to determine neighbor list 
> (simple, grid)
> coulombtype     = Reaction-Field ; Treatment of long range electrostatic 
> interactions
> epsilon_rf      = 78
> rcoulomb        = 1.4           ; long range electrostatic cut-off
> rvdw            = 1.4           ; long range Van der Waals cut-off
> constraints     = none          ; Bond types to replace by constraints
> pbc             = xyz           ; Periodic Boundary Conditions (yes/no)
> 
> table-extension = 1.2
> 
> and this is my topology
> 
> ;
> ;       File 'dynamin_dimer_fg.top' was generated
> ;       By user: vitalini (213883)
> ;       On host: goat
> ;       At date: Mon Jan 30 11:02:21 2012
> ;
> ;       This is your topology file
> ;       "The Poodle Chews It" (F. Zappa)
> ;
> ; Include forcefield parameters
> #include 
> "/home/cocktail/vitalini/gromacs_special/share/gromacs/top/ffG53a6m.itp"
> 
> ; Include chain topologies
> #include "dynamin_dimer_fg_A.itp"
> #include "dynamin_dimer_fg_B.itp"
> 
> ; Include water topology
> #include "/home/cocktail/vitalini/gromacs_special/share/gromacs/top/spc.itp"
> 
> #ifdef POSRES_WATER
> ; Position restraint for each water oxygen
> [ position_restraints ]
> ;  i funct       fcx        fcy        fcz
>    1    1       1000       1000       1000
> #endif
> 
> 
> ;Include restraints on water
> #ifdef POSRES_WAT
> #include "posre_wat.itp"
> #endif
> 
> ; Include generic topology for ions
> #include 
> "/home/cocktail/vitalini/gromacs_special/share/gromacs/top/ions.itp"
> 
> [ system ]
> ; Name
> Protein in water
> 
> [ molecules ]
> ; Compound        #mols
> Protein_A           1
> Protein_B           1
> ;SOL              390842
> SOL             390820
> NA+                22
> 
> while this is the posre_wat.itp file I generated with genrestr
> 
> ; position restraints for non-Protein of Protein in water
> 
> [ position_restraints ]
> ;  i funct       fcx        fcy        fcz
> 15231    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15232    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15233    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15234    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15235    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15236    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15237    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15238    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15239    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15240    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15241    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15242    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15243    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15244    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15245    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15246    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15247    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15248    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15249    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15250    1       1000       1000       1000
> 15251    1       1000       1000       1000
> ..........................
> 187712    1       1000       1000       1000
> 
> Any help?
> Thanks Francesca
> 
> 
> -- 
> Francesca Vitalini
> 
> PhD student at Computational Molecular Biology Group,
> Department of Mathematics and Informatics, FU-Berlin
> Arnimallee 6 14195 Berlin
> 
> vitalini at zedat.fu-berlin.de <mailto:vitalini at zedat.fu-berlin.de>
> francesca.vitalini at fu-berlin.de <mailto:francesca.vitalini at fu-berlin.de>
> 
> +49 3083875776
> +49 3083875412
> 

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

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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