[gmx-users] Inconsistent behavior for bonds involving dummy atoms for alchemical perturbation

Ryan Muraglia rmuraglia at gmail.com
Thu Mar 17 23:04:52 CET 2016


Dear GROMACS users,

I've been attempting to calculate delta G values for GXG tripeptide
mutations as a test case to validate and benchmark my set up, but I have
run into a host of issues and curiosities, one of which I describe below.

Depending on the direction in which I carry out a mutation, a given bond
may or may not throw a (fatal) warning as I execute the grompp call to set
up the NVT equilibration (and subsequently mdruns).

To clarify, here is an example: when running a GAG to GLG mutation, during
the grompp call I receive the following warning:

"WARNING 1 [file topol.top, line 388]:
  The bond in molecule-type Protein between atoms 21 DCD1 and 22 DHD1 has
  an estimated oscillational period of 8.3e-03 ps, which is less than 5
  times the time step of 2.0e-03 ps.
  Maybe you forgot to change the constraints mdp option."

If I choose to ignore this warning by setting maxwarn to 1, the NVT
equilibration blows up.

In the other direction, when running a GLG to GAG mutation, for the same
mdp file, the grompp step before the NVT throws no warning, and the NVT
equilibration runs to completion without a hitch.

I can reduce the time step for the GAG to GLG mutation to have it run to
completion, but I do not understand why I only see this warning in one
direction, when this bond exists in both topologies. I also do not
understand why there is only one bond for which this warning comes up, when
there are several other identical bonds (in terms of atom types, etc) that
fly under the radar. Lastly, I have set "constraints = h-bonds" so it
puzzles me that a bond involving a hydrogen is the culprit here.

I use the pmx package to generate topologies for amino acid substitutions,
and my system uses the amber99sb forcefield with tip3p water. The [atoms]
directive of my A2L topology is reproduced below:

 [ atoms ]
;   nr       type  resnr residue  atom   cgnr     charge       mass  typeB
   chargeB      massB
     1          N3      1    GLY      N      1   0.294300    14.0100
     2           H      1    GLY     H1      2   0.164200     1.0080
     3           H      1    GLY     H2      3   0.164200     1.0080
     4           H      1    GLY     H3      4   0.164200     1.0080
     5          CT      1    GLY     CA      5  -0.010000    12.0100
     6          HP      1    GLY    HA1      6   0.089500     1.0080
     7          HP      1    GLY    HA2      7   0.089500     1.0080
     8           C      1    GLY      C      8   0.616300    12.0100
     9           O      1    GLY      O      9  -0.572200    16.0000
    10           N      2    A2L      N     10  -0.415700    14.0100
    11           H      2    A2L      H     11   0.271900     1.0080
    12          CT      2    A2L     CA     12   0.033700    12.0100
   CT  -0.051800    12.0100
    13          H1      2    A2L     HA     13   0.082300     1.0080
   H1   0.092200     1.0080
    14          CT      2    A2L     CB     14  -0.182500    12.0100
   CT  -0.110200    12.0100
    15          HC      2    A2L    HB1     15   0.060300     1.0080
   CT   0.353100    12.0100
    16          HC      2    A2L    HB2     16   0.060300     1.0080
   HC   0.045700     1.0080
    17          HC      2    A2L    HB3     17   0.060300     1.0080
   HC   0.045700     1.0080
    18           C      2    A2L      C     18   0.597300    12.0100
    19           O      2    A2L      O     19  -0.567900    16.0000
    20      DUM_HC      2    A2L    DHG     20   0.000000     1.0000
   HC  -0.036100     1.0080
    21      DUM_CT      2    A2L   DCD1     21   0.000000     1.0000
   CT  -0.412100    12.0100
    22      DUM_HC      2    A2L   DHD1     22   0.000000     1.0000
   HC   0.100000     1.0080
    23      DUM_HC      2    A2L   DHD2     23   0.000000     1.0000
   HC   0.100000     1.0080
    24      DUM_HC      2    A2L   DHD3     24   0.000000     1.0000
   HC   0.100000     1.0080
    25      DUM_CT      2    A2L   DCD2     25   0.000000     1.0000
   CT  -0.412100    12.0100
    26      DUM_HC      2    A2L   DHD4     26   0.000000     1.0000
   HC   0.100000     1.0080
    27      DUM_HC      2    A2L   DHD5     27   0.000000     1.0000
   HC   0.100000     1.0080
    28      DUM_HC      2    A2L   DHD6     28   0.000000     1.0000
   HC   0.100000     1.0080
    29           N      3    GLY      N     29  -0.382100    14.0100
    30           H      3    GLY      H     30   0.268100     1.0080
    31          CT      3    GLY     CA     31  -0.249300    12.0100
    32          H1      3    GLY    HA1     32   0.105600     1.0080
    33          H1      3    GLY    HA2     33   0.105600     1.0080
    34           C      3    GLY      C     34   0.723100    12.0100
    35          O2      3    GLY    OC1     35  -0.785500    16.0000
    36          O2      3    GLY    OC2     36  -0.785500    16.0000

The L2A topology is similar. The second residue is as follows:

    10           N      2    L2A      N     10  -0.415700    14.0100
    11           H      2    L2A      H     11   0.271900     1.0080
    12          CT      2    L2A     CA     12  -0.051800    12.0100
   CT   0.033700    12.0100
    13          H1      2    L2A     HA     13   0.092200     1.0080
   H1   0.082300     1.0080
    14          CT      2    L2A     CB     14  -0.110200    12.0100
   CT  -0.182500    12.0100
    15          HC      2    L2A    HB1     15   0.045700     1.0080
   HC   0.060300     1.0080
    16          HC      2    L2A    HB2     16   0.045700     1.0080
   HC   0.060300     1.0080
    17          CT      2    L2A     CG     17   0.353100    12.0100
   HC   0.060300     1.0080
    18          HC      2    L2A     HG     18  -0.036100     1.0080
 DUM_HC   0.000000     1.0000
    19          CT      2    L2A    CD1     19  -0.412100    12.0100
 DUM_CT   0.000000     1.0000
    20          HC      2    L2A   HD11     20   0.100000     1.0080
 DUM_HC   0.000000     1.0000
    21          HC      2    L2A   HD12     21   0.100000     1.0080
 DUM_HC   0.000000     1.0000
    22          HC      2    L2A   HD13     22   0.100000     1.0080
 DUM_HC   0.000000     1.0000
    23          CT      2    L2A    CD2     23  -0.412100    12.0100
 DUM_CT   0.000000     1.0000
    24          HC      2    L2A   HD21     24   0.100000     1.0080
 DUM_HC   0.000000     1.0000
    25          HC      2    L2A   HD22     25   0.100000     1.0080
 DUM_HC   0.000000     1.0000
    26          HC      2    L2A   HD23     26   0.100000     1.0080
 DUM_HC   0.000000     1.0000
    27           C      2    L2A      C     27   0.597300    12.0100
    28           O      2    L2A      O     28  -0.567900    16.0000

An additional quirk is that in the A2L direction (the one that is
problematic), mdrun reports that I have 16 constraints in my system,
whereas in the L2A direction, mdrun reports 19 constraints.

Other mutations are a mixed bag. A2V and V2A, despite having the same type
of bond that causes the error in A2L, both go through with no warnings
(although their constraints number do differ, but they follow the pattern
described in the pmx paper). Q2A goes through with no warning, but A2Q
prints a similar warning as above, except this one is between atoms 22 DCD
and 23 DOE1 with an estimated oscillational period of 6.4e-03 ps,
indicating that the problem can arise for bonds that do not involve
hydrogen as well.

Pertinent portions of my mdp file are reproduced below:

integrator = sd ; Langevin dynamics
dt = 0.002 ; 2 fs
constraints = h-bonds
constraint-algorithm = LINCS
continuation = no
lincs-order = 6
lincs-iter = 1

; Free energy calculations
free_energy = yes
delta_lambda = 0 ; no Jarzynski non-eq
calc_lambda_neighbors = 1 ; only calculate energy to immediate neighbors
(suitable for BAR, but MBAR needs all)
sc-alpha                 = 0.5
sc-coul                  = no
sc-power                 = 1.0
sc-sigma                 = 0.3
couple-moltype           = Protein  ; name of moleculetype to decouple
couple-lambda0           = vdw-q      ; all interactions
couple-lambda1           = vdw     ; remove electrostatics, only vdW
couple-intramol          = no
nstdhdl                  = 100

; lambda vectors ; decharging only. Keep as A. Next file deals with
uncharged A to uncharged L to charged L
; init_lambda_state   0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10
init_lambda_state = 05
coul_lambdas =        0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
vdw_lambdas =         0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
bonded_lambdas =      0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ; match
vdw
mass_lambdas =        0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ; match
vdw
temperature_lambdas = 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ; not
doing simulated tempering

I considered that perhaps the issue was due to which atoms had "appeared"
or "disappeared," so I also ran a test using an mdp file where the vdw,
bonded and mass lambdas were set to 1 for the L2A mutation, which I believe
means I should be simulating the same state as the A2L which causes an
error, but I got no warning from grompp.

Any information or advice as to why I am seeing unexpectedly different
behaviors depending on the direction of my mutation would be appreciated.

Thank you!

-- 
Ryan Muraglia
rmuraglia at gmail.com


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