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Noid WG, Szukalo RJ, Kidder KM, Lesniewski MC. Rigorous Progress in Coarse-Graining. Annu Rev Phys Chem 2024; 75:21-45. [PMID: 38941523 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-physchem-062123-010821] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/30/2024]
Abstract
Low-resolution coarse-grained (CG) models provide remarkable computational and conceptual advantages for simulating soft materials. In principle, bottom-up CG models can reproduce all structural and thermodynamic properties of atomically detailed models that can be observed at the resolution of the CG model. This review discusses recent progress in developing theory and computational methods for achieving this promise. We first briefly review variational approaches for parameterizing interaction potentials and their relationship to machine learning methods. We then discuss recent approaches for simultaneously improving both the transferability and thermodynamic properties of bottom-up models by rigorously addressing the density and temperature dependence of these potentials. We also briefly discuss exciting progress in modeling high-resolution observables with low-resolution CG models. More generally, we highlight the essential role of the bottom-up framework not only for fundamentally understanding the limitations of prior CG models but also for developing robust computational methods that resolve these limitations in practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- W G Noid
- Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA;
| | - Ryan J Szukalo
- Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA;
- Current affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
| | - Katherine M Kidder
- Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA;
| | - Maria C Lesniewski
- Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA;
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2
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Wang J, Devarajan DS, Nikoubashman A, Mittal J. Conformational Properties of Polymers at Droplet Interfaces as Model Systems for Disordered Proteins. ACS Macro Lett 2023; 12:1472-1478. [PMID: 37856873 PMCID: PMC10771815 DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.3c00456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 10/03/2023] [Indexed: 10/21/2023]
Abstract
Polymer models serve as useful tools for studying the formation and physical properties of biomolecular condensates. In recent years, the interface dividing the dense and dilute phases of condensates has been discovered to be closely related to their functionality, but the conformational preferences of the constituent proteins remain unclear. To elucidate this, we perform molecular simulations of a droplet formed by phase separation of homopolymers as a surrogate model for the prion-like low-complexity domains. By systematically analyzing the polymer conformations at different locations in the droplet, we find that the chains become compact at the droplet interface compared with the droplet interior. Further, segmental analysis revealed that the end sections of the chains are enriched at the interface to maximize conformational entropy and are more expanded than the middle sections of the chains. We find that the majority of chain segments lie tangential to the droplet surface, and only the chain ends tend to align perpendicular to the interface. These trends also hold for the natural proteins FUS LC and LAF-1 RGG, which exhibit more compact chain conformations at the interface compared to the droplet interior. Our findings provide important insights into the interfacial properties of biomolecular condensates and highlight the value of using simple polymer physics models to understand the underlying mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiahui Wang
- Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
| | | | - Arash Nikoubashman
- Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, 55128 Mainz, Germany
- Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V., Hohe Straße 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany
- Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany
| | - Jeetain Mittal
- Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
- Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics and Genomics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States
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3
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Wang J, Sundaravadivelu Devarajan D, Nikoubashman A, Mittal J. Conformational Properties of Polymers at Droplet Interfaces as Model Systems for Disordered Proteins. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.07.29.551102. [PMID: 37577555 PMCID: PMC10418094 DOI: 10.1101/2023.07.29.551102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/15/2023]
Abstract
Polymer models serve as useful tools for studying the formation and physical properties of biomolecular condensates. In recent years, the interface dividing the dense and dilute phases of condensates has been discovered to be closely related to their functionality, but the conformational preferences of the constituent proteins remain unclear. To elucidate this, we perform molecular simulations of a droplet formed by liquid‒liquid phase separation of homopolymers, as a surrogate model for the prion-like low-complexity domains. By systematically analyzing the polymer conformations at different locations in the droplet, we find that the chains become compact at the droplet interface compared to the droplet interior. Further, segmental analysis revealed that the end sections of the chains are enriched at the interface to maximize conformational entropy, and are more expanded than the middle sections of the chains. We find that the majority of chain segments lie tangential to the droplet surface and only the chain ends tend to align perpendicular to the interface. These trends also hold for the natural proteins FUC LC and LAF-1 RGG, which exhibit more compact chain conformations at the interface compared with the droplet interior. Our findings provide important insights into the interfacial properties of biomolecular condensates and highlight the value of using simple polymer physics models to understand the underlying mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiahui Wang
- Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, United States
| | | | - Arash Nikoubashman
- Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, 55128 Mainz, Germany
| | - Jeetain Mittal
- Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, United States
- Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, United States
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics and Genomics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, United States
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Ricci E, Vergadou N. Integrating Machine Learning in the Coarse-Grained Molecular Simulation of Polymers. J Phys Chem B 2023; 127:2302-2322. [PMID: 36888553 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c06354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/09/2023]
Abstract
Machine learning (ML) is having an increasing impact on the physical sciences, engineering, and technology and its integration into molecular simulation frameworks holds great potential to expand their scope of applicability to complex materials and facilitate fundamental knowledge and reliable property predictions, contributing to the development of efficient materials design routes. The application of ML in materials informatics in general, and polymer informatics in particular, has led to interesting results, however great untapped potential lies in the integration of ML techniques into the multiscale molecular simulation methods for the study of macromolecular systems, specifically in the context of Coarse Grained (CG) simulations. In this Perspective, we aim at presenting the pioneering recent research efforts in this direction and discussing how these new ML-based techniques can contribute to critical aspects of the development of multiscale molecular simulation methods for bulk complex chemical systems, especially polymers. Prerequisites for the implementation of such ML-integrated methods and open challenges that need to be met toward the development of general systematic ML-based coarse graining schemes for polymers are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleonora Ricci
- Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos", GR-15341 Agia Paraskevi, Athens, Greece
- Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos", GR-15341 Agia Paraskevi, Athens, Greece
| | - Niki Vergadou
- Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos", GR-15341 Agia Paraskevi, Athens, Greece
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5
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Ge P, Zhang L, Lei H. Machine learning assisted coarse-grained molecular dynamics modeling of meso-scale interfacial fluids. J Chem Phys 2023; 158:064104. [PMID: 36792498 DOI: 10.1063/5.0131567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
A hallmark of meso-scale interfacial fluids is the multi-faceted, scale-dependent interfacial energy, which often manifests different characteristics across the molecular and continuum scale. The multi-scale nature imposes a challenge to construct reliable coarse-grained (CG) models, where the CG potential function needs to faithfully encode the many-body interactions arising from the unresolved atomistic interactions and account for the heterogeneous density distributions across the interface. We construct the CG models of both single- and two-component polymeric fluid systems based on the recently developed deep coarse-grained potential [Zhang et al., J. Chem. Phys. 149, 034101 (2018)] scheme, where each polymer molecule is modeled as a CG particle. By only using the training samples of the instantaneous force under the thermal equilibrium state, the constructed CG models can accurately reproduce both the probability density function of the void formation in bulk and the spectrum of the capillary wave across the fluid interface. More importantly, the CG models accurately predict the volume-to-area scaling transition for the apolar solvation energy, illustrating the effectiveness to probe the meso-scale collective behaviors encoded with molecular-level fidelity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pei Ge
- Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
| | | | - Huan Lei
- Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
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6
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Confinement-Induced Fractionation and Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation of Polymer Mixtures. Polymers (Basel) 2023; 15:polym15030511. [PMID: 36771812 PMCID: PMC9921168 DOI: 10.3390/polym15030511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Revised: 01/13/2023] [Accepted: 01/16/2023] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The formation of (bio)molecular condensates via liquid-liquid phase separation in cells has received increasing attention, as these aggregates play important functional and regulatory roles within biological systems. However, the majority of studies focused on the behavior of pure systems in bulk solutions, thus neglecting confinement effects and the interplay between the numerous molecules present in cells. To better understand the physical mechanisms driving condensation in cellular environments, we perform molecular simulations of binary polymer mixtures in spherical droplets, considering both monodisperse and polydisperse molecular weight distributions for the longer polymer species. We find that confinement induces a spatial separation of the polymers by length, with the longer ones moving to the droplet center. This partitioning causes a distinct increase in the local polymer concentration near the droplet center, which is more pronounced in polydisperse systems. Consequently, the confined systems exhibit liquid-liquid phase separation at average polymer concentrations where bulk systems are still in the one-phase regime.
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Schmid F. Understanding and Modeling Polymers: The Challenge of Multiple Scales. ACS POLYMERS AU 2022. [DOI: 10.1021/acspolymersau.2c00049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Friederike Schmid
- Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Staudingerweg 9, 55128Mainz, Germany
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Jin J, Pak AJ, Durumeric AEP, Loose TD, Voth GA. Bottom-up Coarse-Graining: Principles and Perspectives. J Chem Theory Comput 2022; 18:5759-5791. [PMID: 36070494 PMCID: PMC9558379 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.2c00643] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 39.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Large-scale computational molecular models provide scientists a means to investigate the effect of microscopic details on emergent mesoscopic behavior. Elucidating the relationship between variations on the molecular scale and macroscopic observable properties facilitates an understanding of the molecular interactions driving the properties of real world materials and complex systems (e.g., those found in biology, chemistry, and materials science). As a result, discovering an explicit, systematic connection between microscopic nature and emergent mesoscopic behavior is a fundamental goal for this type of investigation. The molecular forces critical to driving the behavior of complex heterogeneous systems are often unclear. More problematically, simulations of representative model systems are often prohibitively expensive from both spatial and temporal perspectives, impeding straightforward investigations over possible hypotheses characterizing molecular behavior. While the reduction in resolution of a study, such as moving from an atomistic simulation to that of the resolution of large coarse-grained (CG) groups of atoms, can partially ameliorate the cost of individual simulations, the relationship between the proposed microscopic details and this intermediate resolution is nontrivial and presents new obstacles to study. Small portions of these complex systems can be realistically simulated. Alone, these smaller simulations likely do not provide insight into collectively emergent behavior. However, by proposing that the driving forces in both smaller and larger systems (containing many related copies of the smaller system) have an explicit connection, systematic bottom-up CG techniques can be used to transfer CG hypotheses discovered using a smaller scale system to a larger system of primary interest. The proposed connection between different CG systems is prescribed by (i) the CG representation (mapping) and (ii) the functional form and parameters used to represent the CG energetics, which approximate potentials of mean force (PMFs). As a result, the design of CG methods that facilitate a variety of physically relevant representations, approximations, and force fields is critical to moving the frontier of systematic CG forward. Crucially, the proposed connection between the system used for parametrization and the system of interest is orthogonal to the optimization used to approximate the potential of mean force present in all systematic CG methods. The empirical efficacy of machine learning techniques on a variety of tasks provides strong motivation to consider these approaches for approximating the PMF and analyzing these approximations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaehyeok Jin
- Department of Chemistry,
Chicago Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Biophysical
Dynamics, and James Franck Institute, The
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Alexander J. Pak
- Department of Chemistry,
Chicago Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Biophysical
Dynamics, and James Franck Institute, The
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Aleksander E. P. Durumeric
- Department of Chemistry,
Chicago Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Biophysical
Dynamics, and James Franck Institute, The
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Timothy D. Loose
- Department of Chemistry,
Chicago Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Biophysical
Dynamics, and James Franck Institute, The
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Gregory A. Voth
- Department of Chemistry,
Chicago Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Biophysical
Dynamics, and James Franck Institute, The
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
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Wu Z, Müller-Plathe F. Slip-Spring Hybrid Particle-Field Molecular Dynamics for Coarse-Graining Branched Polymer Melts: Polystyrene Melts as an Example. J Chem Theory Comput 2022; 18:3814-3828. [PMID: 35617016 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.2c00107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The topology of chains significantly modifies the dynamical properties of polymer melts. Here, we extend a recently developed efficient simulation method, namely the slip-spring hybrid particle-field (SS-hPF) model, to study the structural and dynamical properties of branched polymer melts over large spatial-temporal scales. In the coarse-grained SS-hPF simulation of polymers, the bonded potentials are derived by iterative Boltzmann inversion from the underlying fine-grained model. The nonbonded potentials are computed from a density functional field instead of pairwise interactions used in standard molecular dynamics simulations, which increases the computational efficiency by a factor of 10-20. The entangled dynamics is lost due to the soft-core nature of density functional field interactions. It is recovered by a multichain slip-spring model that is rigorously parametrized from existing experimental or simulation data. To quantitatively predict the relaxation and diffusion of branched polymers, which are dominated by arm retraction rather than chain reptation, the slip-spring algorithm is augmented to improve the polymer dynamics near the branch point. Multiple dynamical observables, e.g., diffusion coefficients, arm relaxations, and tube survival probabilities, are characterized in an example coarse-grained model of symmetric and asymmetric star-shaped polystyrene melts. Consistent dynamical behaviors are identified and compared with theoretical predictions. With a single rescaling factor, the prediction of diffusion coefficients agrees well with the available experimental measurements. In this work, an efficient approach is provided to build chemistry-specific coarse-grained models for predicting the dynamics of branched polymers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhenghao Wu
- Eduard-Zintl-Institut für Anorganische und Physikalische Chemie, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Alarich-Weiss-Strasse 8, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Florian Müller-Plathe
- Eduard-Zintl-Institut für Anorganische und Physikalische Chemie, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Alarich-Weiss-Strasse 8, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
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10
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Schmid F. Editorial: Multiscale simulation methods for soft matter systems. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2022; 34:160401. [PMID: 35179129 DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/ac5071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2022] [Accepted: 01/31/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Friederike Schmid
- Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
- Max-Planck Institut für Polymerforschung, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany
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11
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DeLyser MR, Noid WG. Coarse-grained models for local density gradients. J Chem Phys 2022; 156:034106. [DOI: 10.1063/5.0075291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Michael R. DeLyser
- Department of Chemistry, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
| | - W. G. Noid
- Department of Chemistry, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
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