CHARMM (Chemistry at HARvard Molecular Mechanics) is a highly versatile and widely used molecular simulation program. It has been developed over the last three decades with a primary focus on molecules of biological interest, including proteins, peptides, lipids, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and small molecule ligands, as they occur in solution, crystals, and membrane environments. For the study of such systems, the program provides a large suite of computational tools that include numerous conformational and path sampling methods, free energy estimators, molecular minimization, dynamics, and analysis techniques, and model-building capabilities. In addition, the CHARMM program is applicable to problems involving a much broader class of many-particle systems. Calculations with CHARMM can be performed using a number of different energy functions and models, from mixed quantum mechanical-molecular mechanical force fields, to all-atom classical potential energy functions with explicit solvent and various boundary conditions, to implicit solvent and membrane models. The program has been ported to numerous platforms in both serial and parallel architectures. This paper provides an overview of the program as it exists today with an emphasis on developments since the publication of the original CHARMM paper in 1983.

The self-consistent-charge density-functional tight-binding method (SCC-DFTB) is an approximate quantum chemical method derived from density functional theory (DFT) based on a second-order expansion of the DFT total energy around a reference density. In the present study we combine earlier extensions and improve them consistently with, first, an improved Coulomb interaction between atomic partial charges, and second, the complete third-order expansion of the DFT total energy. These modifications lead us to the next generation of the DFTB methodology called DFTB3, which substantially improves the description of charged systems containing elements C, H, N, O, and P, especially regarding hydrogen binding energies and proton affinities. As a result, DFTB3 is particularly applicable to biomolecular systems. Remaining challenges and possible solutions are also briefly discussed.

A quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) approach based on an approximate density functional theory, the so-called self-consistent charge density functional tight binding (SCC-DFTB) method, has been implemented in the CHARMM program and tested on a number of systems of biological interest. In the gas phase, SCC-DFTB gives reliable energetics for models of the triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) catalyzed reactions. The rms errors in the energetics compared to B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) are about 2−4 kcal/mol; this is to be contrasted with AM1, where the corresponding errors are 9−11 kcal/mol. The method also gives accurate vibrational frequencies. For the TIM reactions in the presence of the enzyme, the overall SCC-DFTB/CHARMM results are in somewhat worse agreement with the B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p)/CHARMM values; the rms error in the energies is 5.4 kcal/mol. Single-point B3LYP/CHARMM energies at the SCC-DFTB/CHARMM optimized structures were found to be very similar to the full B3LYP/CHARMM values. The relative stabilities of the αR and 310 conformations of penta- and octaalanine peptides were studied with minimization and molecular dynamics simulations in vacuum and in solution. Although CHARMM and SCC-DFTB give qualitative different results in the gas phase (the latter is in approximate agreement with previous B3LYP calculations), similar behavior was found in aqueous solution simulations with CHARMM and SCC-DFTB/CHARMM. The 310 conformation was not found to be stable, and converted to the αR form in about 15 ps. The αR conformation was stable in the simulation with both SCC-DFTB/CHARMM and CHARMM. The i,i+3 CO···HN distances in the αR conformation were shorter with the SCC-DFTB method (2.58 Å) than with CHARMM (3.13 Å). With SCC-DFTB/CHARMM, significant populations with i,i+3 CO···HN distances near 2.25 Å, particularly for the residues at the termini, were found. This can be related to the conclusion from NMR spectroscopy that the 310 configuration contributes for alanine-rich peptides, especially at the termini.

Although phenomenlogical models that account for cooperativity in allosteric systems date back to the early and mid-60's (e.g., the KNF and MWC models), there is resurgent interest in the topic due to the recent experimental and computational studies that attempted to reveal, at an atomistic level, how allostery actually works. In this review, using systems for which atomistic simulations have been carried out in our groups as examples, we describe the current understanding of allostery, how the mechanisms go beyond the classical MWC/Pauling-KNF descriptions, and point out that the ''new view'' of allostery, emphasizing ''population shifts,'' is, in fact, an ''old view.'' The presentation offers not only an up-to-date description of allostery from a theoretical/computational perspective, but also helps to resolve several outstanding issues concerning allostery.

The standard self-consistent-charge density-functional-tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) method (Phys. Rev. B 1998, 58, 7260) is derived by a second-order expansion of the density functional theory total energy expression, followed by an approximation of the charge density fluctuations by charge monopoles and an effective damped Coulomb interaction between the atomic net charges. The central assumptions behind this effective charge-charge interaction are the inverse relation of atomic size and chemical hardness and the use of a fixed chemical hardness parameter independent of the atomic charge state. While these approximations seem to be unproblematic for many covalently bound systems, they are quantitatively insufficient for hydrogen-bonding interactions and (anionic) molecules with localized net charges. Here, we present an extension of the SCC-DFTB method to incorporate third-order terms in the charge density fluctuations, leading to chemical hardness parameters that are dependent on the atomic charge state and a modification of the Coulomb scaling to improve the electrostatic treatment within the second-order terms. These modifications lead to a significant improvement in the description of hydrogen-bonding interactions and proton affinities of biologically relevant molecules.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is a prevalent internal modification in mRNA and non- coding RNA affecting various cellular pathways. Here we report the discovery of two additional modifications, N6-hydroxymethyladenosine (hm6A) and N6- formyladenosine (f6A), in mammalian mRNA. We show that FeII- and α-ketoglutarate (α-KG)-dependent fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) protein oxidizes m6A to generates hm6A as an intermediate modification and f6A as a further oxidized product. hm6A and f6A have half-life times of ~3 h in aqueous solution under physiological relevant conditions, and are present in isolated mRNA from human cells as well as mouse tissues. These previously unknown modifications derived from the prevalent m6A in mRNA, formed through oxidative RNA demethylation, may dynamically modulate RNA-protein interactions to affect gene expression regulation.

Semiempirical (SE) methods can be derived from either Hartree–Fock or density functional theory by applying systematic approximations, leading to efficient computational schemes that are several orders of magnitude faster than ab initio calculations. Such numerical efficiency, in combination with modern computational facilities and linear scaling algorithms, allows application of SE methods to very large molecular systems with extensive conformational sampling. To reliably model the structure, dynamics, and reactivity of biological and other soft matter systems, however, good accuracy for the description of noncovalent interactions is required. In this review, we analyze popular SE approaches in terms of their ability to model noncovalent interactions, especially in the context of describing biomolecules, water solution, and organic materials. We discuss the most significant errors and proposed correction schemes, and we review their performance using standard test sets of molecular systems for quantum chemical methods and several recent applications. The general goal is to highlight both the value and limitations of SE methods and stimulate further developments that allow them to effectively complement ab initio methods in the analysis of complex molecular systems.

Motivated by the long-term goal of understanding vectorial biological processes such as proton transport (PT) in biomolecular ion pumps, a number of developments were made to establish combined quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) methods suitable for studying chemical reactions involving significant charge separation in the condensed phase. These developments were summarized and discussed with representative problems. Specifically, free energy perturbation and boundary potential methods for treating long-range electrostatics were implemented to test the robustness of QM/MM results for protein systems. It was shown that consistent models with sufficient sampling were able to produce quantitatively satisfactory results, such as pK a for titritable groups in the interior of T4-lysozyme, while an inconsistent treatment of electrostatics or lack of sufficient sampling may produce incorrect results. Modifications were made to an approximate density functional theory (SCC-DFTB) to improve the description of proton affinity and hydrogen-bonding, which are crucial for the treatment of PT in polar systems. Test calculations on water autoionization showed clearly that both improvements are necessary for quantitatively reliable results. Finally, the newly established SCC-DFTB/MM-GSBP protocol was used to explore mechanistic issues in carbonic anhydrase (CA). Preliminary results suggest that PT in CA occurs mainly through short water wires containing two water molecules in a thermally activated fashion. Although longer water wires occur with similar frequencies, PT along those pathways, on average, has substantially higher barriers, a result not expected based on previous studies. The fluctuations of water molecules peripheral to the water wire were found to make a larger impact on the PT energetics compared to polar protein residues in the active site, which are largely pre-organized and therefore have less tendency to reorganize during the reaction.