3. Energy minimization¶
In order to remove “clashes” (i.e. close overlaps of the LJ cores) we perform an energy minimization: Instead of a MD simulation we use an algorithm to change the coordinates in such a way as to reduce the total potential energy.
3.1. Set up and generate the run file¶
First, we will copy a file from the templates folder (provided in this tutorial) that tells Gromacs MD program how to do energy minimization:
cp ../templates/em.mdp .
Tip
Have a look at the MDP file to get a feel for what kinds of settings can be adjusted to suit one’s needs. Individual parameters are explained in more detail in mdp options.
The *.mdp
file contains the settings that dictate the nature of the
simulation. For energy minimization, we will use the simple steepest
descent minimizer (integrator = steep
in em.mdp
, which runs in
parallel). Use gmx grompp (the GROMacs PreProcessor) to generate the run
input file (TPR) from the run parameter file (MDP), coordinate file
(the solvated system with ions; PDB), and the topology (TOP):
cd ../emin
gmx grompp -f em.mdp -c ../solvation/ionized.pdb -p ../top/4ake.top -o em.tpr
3.2. Perform energy minimization¶
The energy minimization is performed with gmx mdrun but by
using the appropriate integrator
option in the Run control
options in the MDP file it has been instructed to do a energy
minimization:
gmx mdrun -v -s em.tpr -deffnm em -c em.pdb
Ideally, the maximum force Fmax (gradient of the potential) should
be < 1e+03 kJ mol-1 nm-2 (but typically anything below 1e+05
kJ mol-1 nm-2 works). See the screen output or the em.log
file for
this information.
Tip
The final frame of minimization (the structure in em.pdb
) can
be used as the input structure for further minimization runs. It is
common to do an initial energy minimization using the efficient
steepest descent method and further minimization with a more
sophisticated method such as the conjugate gradient algorithm
(integrator = cg
) or the Newton-like
Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (integrator = l-bfgs
) minimizer.
For details, see Run control options in the MDP file.