Molecular dynamics simulations of membrane proteins

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations are a powerful tool for complementing experimental studies, providing insights in biological processes at the molecular and atomistic level, at timescales from picoseconds to microseconds. Simulations are useful for testing hypotheses and can provide explanations for experimental observations as well as suggestions for further experiments. This does require that the simulation setup allows assessment of the question addressed. For example, it is evident that for simulation of a protein in its functional state the protein model and the environment have to mimic the biological situation as close as possible. In this chapter, a general strategy is presented for setting up and running simulations of membrane proteins of known structure in biological membranes of diverse composition and size. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.