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Li J, Zhou Y, Chen SJ. Embracing exascale computing in nucleic acid simulations. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2024; 87:102847. [PMID: 38815519 DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2024.102847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2023] [Revised: 04/18/2024] [Accepted: 05/09/2024] [Indexed: 06/01/2024]
Abstract
This mini-review reports the recent advances in biomolecular simulations, particularly for nucleic acids, and provides the potential effects of the emerging exascale computing on nucleic acid simulations, emphasizing the need for advanced computational strategies to fully exploit this technological frontier. Specifically, we introduce recent breakthroughs in computer architectures for large-scale biomolecular simulations and review the simulation protocols for nucleic acids regarding force fields, enhanced sampling methods, coarse-grained models, and interactions with ligands. We also explore the integration of machine learning methods into simulations, which promises to significantly enhance the predictive modeling of biomolecules and the analysis of complex data generated by the exascale simulations. Finally, we discuss the challenges and perspectives for biomolecular simulations as we enter the dawning exascale computing era.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Li
- Department of Physics, Department of Biochemistry and Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, 223 Physics Bldg., Columbia, 65211, MO, USA
| | - Yuanzhe Zhou
- Department of Physics, Department of Biochemistry and Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, 223 Physics Bldg., Columbia, 65211, MO, USA
| | - Shi-Jie Chen
- Department of Physics, Department of Biochemistry and Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, 223 Physics Bldg., Columbia, 65211, MO, USA.
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2
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Büchl A, Kopperger E, Vogt M, Langecker M, Simmel FC, List J. Energy landscapes of rotary DNA origami devices determined by fluorescence particle tracking. Biophys J 2022; 121:4849-4859. [PMID: 36071662 PMCID: PMC9808541 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2022.08.046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2022] [Revised: 08/12/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Biomolecular nanomechanical devices are of great interest as tools for the processing and manipulation of molecules, thereby mimicking the function of nature's enzymes. DNA nanotechnology provides the capability to build molecular analogs of mechanical machine elements such as joints and hinges via sequence-programmable self-assembly, which are otherwise known from traditional mechanical engineering. Relative to their size, these molecular machine elements typically do not reach the same relative precision and reproducibility that we know from their macroscopic counterparts; however, as they are scaled down to molecular sizes, physical effects typically not considered by mechanical engineers such as Brownian motion, intramolecular forces, and the molecular roughness of the devices begin to dominate their behavior. In order to investigate the effect of different design choices on the roughness of the mechanical energy landscapes of DNA nanodevices in greater detail, we here study an exemplary DNA origami-based structure, a modularly designed rotor-stator arrangement, which resembles a rotatable nanorobotic arm. Using fluorescence tracking microscopy, we follow the motion of individual rotors and record their corresponding energy landscapes. We then utilize the modular construction of the device to exchange its constituent parts individually and systematically test the effect of different design variants on the movement patterns. This allows us to identify the design parameters that most strongly affect the shape of the energy landscapes of the systems. Taking into account these insights, we are able to create devices with significantly flatter energy landscapes, which translates to mechanical nanodevices with improved performance and behaviors more closely resembling those of their macroscopic counterparts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian Büchl
- Physics Department E14, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
| | - Enzo Kopperger
- Physics Department E14, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
| | - Matthias Vogt
- Physics Department E14, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
| | - Martin Langecker
- Physics Department E14, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
| | - Friedrich C Simmel
- Physics Department E14, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany.
| | - Jonathan List
- Physics Department E14, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany.
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Xie C, Hu Y, Chen Z, Chen K, Pan L. Tuning curved DNA origami structures through mechanical design and chemical adducts. NANOTECHNOLOGY 2022; 33:405603. [PMID: 35772292 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac7d62] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2022] [Accepted: 06/30/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The bending and twisting of DNA origami structures are important features for controlling the physical properties of DNA nanodevices. It has not been fully explored yet how to finely tune the bending and twisting of curved DNA structures. Traditional tuning of the curved DNA structures was limited to controlling the in-plane-bending angle through varying the numbers of base pairs of deletions and insertions. Here, we developed two tuning strategies of curved DNA origami structures fromin silicoandin vitroaspects.In silico, the out-of-plane bending and twisting angles of curved structures were introduced, and were tuned through varying the patterns of base pair deletions and insertions.In vitro, a chemical adduct (ethidium bromide) was applied to dynamically tune a curved spiral. The 3D structural conformations, like chirality, of the curved DNA structures were finely tuned through these two strategies. The simulation and TEM results demonstrated that the patterns of base pair insertions and deletions and chemical adducts could effectively tune the bending and twisting of curved DNA origami structures. These strategies expand the programmable accuracy of curved DNA origami structures and have potential in building efficient dynamic functional nanodevices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chun Xie
- Key Laboratory of Image Information Processing and Intelligent Control of Education Ministry of China, School of Artificial Intelligence and Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China
| | - Yingxin Hu
- College of Information Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Shijiazhuang, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhekun Chen
- Key Laboratory of Image Information Processing and Intelligent Control of Education Ministry of China, School of Artificial Intelligence and Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China
| | - Kuiting Chen
- Key Laboratory of Image Information Processing and Intelligent Control of Education Ministry of China, School of Artificial Intelligence and Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China
| | - Linqiang Pan
- Key Laboratory of Image Information Processing and Intelligent Control of Education Ministry of China, School of Artificial Intelligence and Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China
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Kaufhold WT, Pfeifer W, Castro CE, Di Michele L. Probing the Mechanical Properties of DNA Nanostructures with Metadynamics. ACS NANO 2022; 16:8784-8797. [PMID: 35580231 PMCID: PMC9245350 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.1c08999] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Molecular dynamics simulations are often used to provide feedback in the design workflow of DNA nanostructures. However, even with coarse-grained models, the convergence of distributions from unbiased simulation is slow, limiting applications to equilibrium structural properties. Given the increasing interest in dynamic, reconfigurable, and deformable devices, methods that enable efficient quantification of large ranges of motion, conformational transitions, and mechanical deformation are critically needed. Metadynamics is an automated biasing technique that enables the rapid acquisition of molecular conformational distributions by flattening free energy landscapes. Here we leveraged this approach to sample the free energy landscapes of DNA nanostructures whose unbiased dynamics are nonergodic, including bistable Holliday junctions and part of a bistable DNA origami structure. Taking a DNA origami-compliant joint as a case study, we further demonstrate that metadynamics can predict the mechanical response of a full DNA origami device to an applied force, showing good agreement with experiments. Our results exemplify the efficient computation of free energy landscapes and force response in DNA nanodevices, which could be applied for rapid feedback in iterative design workflows and generally facilitate the integration of simulation and experiments. Metadynamics will be particularly useful to guide the design of dynamic devices for nanorobotics, biosensing, or nanomanufacturing applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Will T. Kaufhold
- Department
of Physics, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, U.K.
- Department
of Chemistry and fabriCELL, Molecular Sciences Research Hub, Imperial College London, London W12 0BZ, U.K.
| | - Wolfgang Pfeifer
- Department
of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, Ohio, United States
| | - Carlos E. Castro
- Department
of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, Ohio, United States
| | - Lorenzo Di Michele
- Department
of Physics, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, U.K.
- Department
of Chemistry and fabriCELL, Molecular Sciences Research Hub, Imperial College London, London W12 0BZ, U.K.
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Kaufhold WT, Pfeifer W, Castro CE, Di Michele L. Probing the Mechanical Properties of DNA Nanostructures with Metadynamics. ACS NANO 2022; 16:8784-8797. [PMID: 35580231 DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2110.01477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Molecular dynamics simulations are often used to provide feedback in the design workflow of DNA nanostructures. However, even with coarse-grained models, the convergence of distributions from unbiased simulation is slow, limiting applications to equilibrium structural properties. Given the increasing interest in dynamic, reconfigurable, and deformable devices, methods that enable efficient quantification of large ranges of motion, conformational transitions, and mechanical deformation are critically needed. Metadynamics is an automated biasing technique that enables the rapid acquisition of molecular conformational distributions by flattening free energy landscapes. Here we leveraged this approach to sample the free energy landscapes of DNA nanostructures whose unbiased dynamics are nonergodic, including bistable Holliday junctions and part of a bistable DNA origami structure. Taking a DNA origami-compliant joint as a case study, we further demonstrate that metadynamics can predict the mechanical response of a full DNA origami device to an applied force, showing good agreement with experiments. Our results exemplify the efficient computation of free energy landscapes and force response in DNA nanodevices, which could be applied for rapid feedback in iterative design workflows and generally facilitate the integration of simulation and experiments. Metadynamics will be particularly useful to guide the design of dynamic devices for nanorobotics, biosensing, or nanomanufacturing applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Will T Kaufhold
- Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, U.K
- Department of Chemistry and fabriCELL, Molecular Sciences Research Hub, Imperial College London, London W12 0BZ, U.K
| | - Wolfgang Pfeifer
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, Ohio, United States
| | - Carlos E Castro
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, Ohio, United States
| | - Lorenzo Di Michele
- Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, U.K
- Department of Chemistry and fabriCELL, Molecular Sciences Research Hub, Imperial College London, London W12 0BZ, U.K
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The Free-Energy Landscape of a Mechanically Bistable DNA Origami. APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/app12125875] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Molecular simulations using coarse-grained models allow the structure, dynamics and mechanics of DNA origamis to be comprehensively characterized. Here, we focus on the free-energy landscape of a jointed DNA origami that has been designed to exhibit two mechanically stable states and for which a bistable landscape has been inferred from ensembles of structures visualized by electron microscopy. Surprisingly, simulations using the oxDNA model predict that the defect-free origami has a single free-energy minimum. The expected second state is not stable because the hinge joints do not simply allow free angular motion but instead lead to increasing free-energetic penalties as the joint angles relevant to the second state are approached. This raises interesting questions about the cause of this difference between simulations and experiment, such as how assembly defects might affect the ensemble of structures observed experimentally.
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