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Incorporating the effect of ionic strength in free energy calculations using explicit ions
Author(s) -
Donnini Serena,
Mark Alan E.,
Juffer André H.,
Villa Alessandra
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of computational chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.907
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1096-987X
pISSN - 0192-8651
DOI - 10.1002/jcc.20156
Subject(s) - ion , ionic bonding , chemistry , molecular dynamics , ionic strength , charge (physics) , triosephosphate isomerase , molecule , chemical physics , counterion , umbrella sampling , computational chemistry , atomic physics , physics , quantum mechanics , biochemistry , gene , organic chemistry , aqueous solution
The incorporation of explicit ions to mimic the effect of ionic strength or to neutralize the overall charge on a system in free energy calculations using molecular dynamics simulations is investigated. The difference in the free energy of hydration between two triosephosphate isomerase inhibitors calculated at five different ion concentrations is used as an example. We show that the free energy difference can be highly sensitive to the presence of explicit ions even in cases where the mutation itself does not involve a change in the overall charge. The effect is most significant if the molecule carries a net charge close to the site mutated. Furthermore, it is shown that the introduction of a small number of ions can lead to very severe sampling problems suggesting that in practical calculations convergence can best be achieved by incorporating either no counterions or by simulating at high ionic strength to ensure sufficient sampling of the ion distribution. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 26: 115–122, 2005