Martini 3 Coarse-Grained Force Field for cholesterol

22 May 2023, Version 1

Abstract

Cholesterol plays a crucial role in biomembranes by regulating various properties such as fluidity, rigidity, permeability, and organization of lipid bilayers. The latest version of the Martini model, Martini 3, offers significant improvements in interaction balance, molecular packing, and the inclusion of new bead types and sizes. However, the release of the new model resulted in the need to re-parameterize many core molecules, including cholesterol. Here, we describe the development and validation of a Martini 3 cholesterol model, addressing issues related to its bonded setup, shape, volume and hydrophobicity. The proposed model mitigates some limitations of its Martini 2 predecessor while maintaining or improving overall behavior.

Keywords

Cholesterol
Martini 3
Martini
membrane
lipids
Molecular dynamics

Supplementary materials

Title
Description
Actions
Title
Supplementary Information
Description
Additional analysis and information.
Actions
Title
Supplementary Video S1
Description
Top view of Martini 3 70:30 DPPC:CHOL, 85:15 DPPC:CHOL and 85:15 DOPC:CHOL lipid bilayer simulations at 300 K. DPPC first acyl-chain beads (C1A, C1B) are represented in grey. Cholesterol hydroxyl bead (ROH) is represented in red. Note the transient formation of DPPC gel domains (visible through the hexagonal acyl-chain arrangement) over the course of the simulation. The last 500 ns are shown.
Actions

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.