CHARMM Additive All-Atom Force Field for Glycosidic Linkages between Hexopyranoses

We present an extension of the CHARMM hexopyranose monosaccharide additive all-atom force field to enable modeling of glycosidic-linked hexopyranose polysaccharides. The new force field parameters encompass 1→1, 1→2, 1→3, 1→4, and 1→6 hexopyranose glycosidic linkages, as well as O-methylation at the C(1) anomeric carbon, and are developed to be consistent with the CHARMM all-atom biomolecular force fields for proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids. The parameters are developed in a hierarchical fashion using model compounds containing the key atoms in the full carbohydrates, in particular O-methyl-tetrahydropyran and glycosidic-linked dimers consisting of two molecules of tetrahyropyran or one of tetrahydropyran and one of cyclohexane. Target data for parameter optimization include full two-dimensional energy surfaces defined by the Φ/Ψ glycosidic dihedral angles in the disaccharide analogs as determined by quantum mechanical MP2/cc-pVTZ single point energies on MP2/6-31G(d) optimized structures (MP2/cc-pVTZ//MP2/6-31G(d)). In order to achieve balanced, transferable dihedral parameters for the Φ/Ψ glycosidic dihedral angles, surfaces for all possible chiralities at the ring carbon atoms involved in the glycosidic linkages are considered, resulting in over 5000 MP2/cc-pVTZ//MP2/6-31G(d) conformational energies. Also included as target data are vibrational frequencies, pair interaction energies and distances with water molecules, and intramolecular geometries including distortion of the glycosidic valence angle as a function of the glycosidic dihedral angles. The model-compound optimized force field parameters are validated on full disaccharides through comparison of molecular dynamics results to available experimental data. Good agreement is achieved with experiment for a variety of properties including crystal cell parameters and intramolecular geometries, aqueous densities, and aqueous NMR coupling constants associated with the glycosidic linkage. The newly-developed parameters allow for the modeling of linear, branched, and cyclic hexopyranose glycosides both alone and in heterogenous systems including proteins, nucleic acids and/or lipids when combined with existing CHARMM biomolecular force fields.