Transition path sampling with quantum/classical mechanics for reaction rates

Abstract

Predicting rates of biochemical reactions through molecular simulations poses a particular challenge for two reasons. First, the process involves bond formation and/or cleavage and thus requires a quantum mechanical (QM) treatment of the reaction center, which can be combined with a more efficient molecular mechanical (MM) description for the remainder of the system, resulting in a QM/MM approach. Second, reaction time scales are typically many orders of magnitude larger than the (sub-)nanosecond scale accessible by QM/MM simulations. Transition path sampling (TPS) allows to efficiently sample the space of dynamic trajectories from the reactant to the product state without an additional biasing potential. We outline here the application of TPS and QM/MM to calculate rates for biochemical reactions, by means of a simple toy system. In a step-by-step protocol, we specifically refer to our implementation within the MD suite Gromacs, which we have made available to the research community, and include practical advice on the choice of parameters.