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We study phase behaviour of lipid-bilayer vesicles functionalised by ligand-receptor complexes made of synthetic DNA by introducing a modelling framework and a dedicated experimental platform. In particular, we perform Monte Carlo simulations that combine a coarse grained description of the lipid bilayer with state of art analytical models for multivalent ligand-receptor interactions. Using density of state calculations, we derive the partition function in pairs of vesicles and compute the number of ligand-receptor bonds as a function of temperature. Numerical results are compared to microscopy and fluorimetry experiments on large unilamellar vesicles decorated by DNA linkers carrying complementary overhangs. We find that vesicle aggregation is suppressed when the total number of linkers falls below a threshold value. Within the model proposed here, this is due to the higher configurational costs required to form inter-vesicle bridges as compared to intra-vesicle loops, which are in turn related to membrane deformability. Our findings and our numerical/experimental methodologies are applicable to the rational design of liposomes used as functional materials and drug delivery applications, as well as to study inter-membrane interactions in living systems, such as cell adhesion.

Ligand-receptor interactions are ubiquitous in biology and have become popular in materials in view of their applications to programmable self-assembly. Although complex functionalities often emerge from the simultaneous interaction of more than just two linker molecules, state of the art theoretical frameworks enable the calculation of the free energy only in systems featuring one-to-one ligand/receptor binding. In this Communication, we derive a general formula to calculate the free energy of systems featuring simultaneous direct interaction between an arbitrary number of linkers. To exemplify the potential and generality of our approach, we apply it to the systems recently introduced by Parolini et al. [ACS Nano 10, 2392 (2016)] and Halverson and Tkachenko [J. Chem. Phys. 144, 094903 (2016)], both featuring functionalized Brownian particles interacting via three-linker complexes.

Two one-site polarizable urea models, COS/U and COS/U2, based on the charge-on-spring model are proposed. The models are parametrized against thermodynamic properties of urea-water mixtures in combination with the polarizable COS/G2 and COS/D2 models for liquid water, respectively, and have the same functional form of the inter-atomic interaction function and are based on the same parameter calibration procedure and type of experimental data as used to develop the GROMOS biomolecular force field. Thermodynamic, dielectric, and dynamic properties of urea-water mixtures simulated using the polarizable models are closer to experimental data than using the non-polarizable models. The COS/U and COS/U2 models may be used in biomolecular simulations of protein denaturation.

The accuracy of biomolecular simulations depends to some degree on the accuracy of the water model used to solvate the biomolecules. Because many biomolecules such as proteins are electrostatically rather inhomogeneous, containing apolar, polar, and charged moieties or side chains, a water model should be able to represent the polarisation response to a local electrostatic field, while being compatible with the force field used to model the biomolecules or protein. The two polarisable water models, COS/G2 and COS/D, that are compatible with the GROMOS biomolecular force fields leave room for improvement. The COS/G2 model has a slightly too large dielectric permittivity and the COS/D model displays a much too slow dynamics. The proposed COS/D2 model has four interaction sites: only one Lennard-Jones interaction site, the oxygen atom, and three permanent charge sites, the two hydrogens, and one massless off-atom site that also serves as charge-on-spring (COS) polarisable site with a damped or sub-linear dependence of the induced dipole on the electric field strength for large values of the latter. These properties make it a cheap and yet realistic water model for biomolecular solvation.

Starting from a nonpolarizable rigid molecular model for DMSO, a polarizable rigid model for DMSO in the liquid phase is proposed. The molecular polarizability is represented by a charge-on-spring (COS) inducible dipole at the sulfur atom and its polarization is damped for large values of the electric field strength. Some parameters of the model, the partial charge distribution, the polarizability, the value of the electric field at which damping sets in, were varied, and the overall depth and repulsion strength of the Lennard-Jones interactions were scaled with the aim of reproducing the experimental values for the molecular dipole moment, the density, heat of vaporization, and static dielectric constant of liquid DMSO at ambient temperature and pressure. The polarizable DMSO/D model well reproduces the experimental data, such as excess free energy, surface tension, translational, and rotational diffusion, for liquid DMSO. The model is further tested in mixtures with polarizable water models and in mixtures with nonpolarizable DMSO. The latter results suggest that it could serve as model for polarizable cosolvent in aqueous solutions.

Electronic polarizability is usually treated implicitly in molecular simulations, which may lead to imprecise or even erroneous molecular behavior in spatially electronically inhomogeneous regions of systems such as proteins, membranes, interfaces between compounds, or mixtures of solvents. The majority of available molecular force fields and molecular dynamics simulation software packages does not account explicitly for electronic polarization. Even the simplest charge-on-spring (COS) models have only been developed for few types of molecules. In this work, we report a polarizable COS model for cyclohexane, as this molecule is a widely used solvent, and for linear alkanes, which are also used as solvents, and are the precursors of lipids, amino acid side chains, carbohydrates, or nucleic acid backbones. The model is an extension of a nonpolarizable united-atom model for alkanes that had been calibrated against experimental values of the density, the heat of vaporization and the Gibbs free energy of hydration for each alkane. The latter quantity was used to calibrate the parameters governing the interaction of the polarizable alkanes with water. Subsequently, the model was tested for other structural, thermodynamic, dielectric, and dynamic properties such as trans/gauche ratios, excess free energy, static dielectric permittivity, and self-diffusion. A good agreement with the experimental data for a large set of properties for each considered system was obtained, resulting in a transferable set of polarizable force-field parameters for CH2, CH3, and CH4 moieties., (Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The technique of one-step perturbation to explore the relation between particular force-field parameters on the one hand and particular properties of a biomolecular system on the other hand from one or a few molecular dynamics simulations is applied to investigate the dependence of the free enthalpy of dimer formation and of crystal dissolution of a self-complementary fragment (H-CGTACG-NH2) of peptide nucleic acid, PNA, a mimic of DNA. The simulations show that PNA dimer formation in aqueous solution is favored by a decrease in the base charges with respect to values of the GROMOS 45A4 force field, while it is disfavored by a decrease in the backbone charges. In contrast, crystal dissolution of the PNA dimer is favored by a decrease in base charges, while a variation of backbone charges has a minor effect on this free enthalpy change. These opposite effects in a crystalline versus aqueous solution environment can be understood from the different water contents for these systems and have consequences for biomolecular force-field development.