Derivatives of molecular surface area and volume: simple and exact analytical formulas

J Comput Chem. 2011 Sep;32(12):2647-53. doi: 10.1002/jcc.21844. Epub 2011 Jun 8.

Abstract

The computational effort of biomolecular simulations can be significantly reduced by means of implicit solvent models in which the energy generally contains a correction depending on the surface area and/or the volume of the molecule. In this article, we present simple derivation of exact, easy-to-use analytical formulas for these quantities and their derivatives with respect to atomic coordinates. In addition, we provide an efficient, linear-scaling algorithm for the construction of the power diagram required for practical implementation of these formulas. Our approach is implemented in a C++ header-only template library.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Solvents / chemistry*

Substances

  • Solvents