Lessons learned in atomistic simulation of double-stranded DNA: Solvation and salt concerns [Article v1.0].

Living J Comput Mol Sci

Department of Medicinal Chemistry, L. S. Skaggs Pharmacy Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112.

Published: August 2019

AI Article Synopsis

  • Nucleic acids, like DNA and RNA, are complex molecules affected by their environment, particularly by water and salts.
  • Molecular dynamics simulations help researchers study the detailed structure and behavior of these nucleic acids.
  • In this study, the Drew-Dickerson dodecamer DNA showed no significant structural changes with varying salt concentrations, except in extremely high salt conditions (5M), where minor groove narrowing was observed due to ion presence.

Article Abstract

Nucleic acids are highly charged macromolecules sensitive to their surroundings of water, salt, and other biomolecules. Molecular dynamics simulations with accurate biomolecular force fields provide a detailed atomistic view into DNA and RNA that has been useful to study the structure and dynamics of these molecules and their biological relevance. In this work we study the Drew-Dickerson dodecamer duplex with the sequence d(GCGCAATTGCGC) in three different salt concentrations and using different monvalent salt types to detect possible structural influence. Overall, the DNA shows no major structural changes regardless of amount or type of monovalent ions used. Our results show that only at very high salt conditions (5M) is a small structural effect observed in the DNA duplex, which mainly consist of narrowing of the grooves due to increased residence of ions. We also present the importance of sampling time to achieve a converged ensemble, which is of major relevance in any simulation to avoid biased or non-meaningful results.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7561045PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.33011/livecoms.1.2.9974DOI Listing

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