| Abstract: | Current macromolecular energy minimization algorithms become inefficient and prone to failure when bond length constraints are imposed. They are required to relieve steric stresses in biomolecules prior to a molecular dynamics simulation. Unfortunately, the latter often require constraints, leading to difficulties in initiating trajectories from unconstrained energy minima. This difficulty was overcome by requiring that the components of the energy gradient vanish along the constrained bonds. The modified energy minimization algorithm converges to a lower energy in a fewer number of iterations and is more robust than current implementations. The method has been successfully applied to the Dickerson DNA dodecamer, CGCGAATTCGCG. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
