Extending the Martini Coarse-Grained Force Field to N-Glycans

Glycans play a vital role in a large number of cellular processes. Their complex and flexible nature hampers structure–function studies using experimental techniques. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can help in understanding dynamic aspects of glycans if the force field parameters used can reproduce key experimentally observed properties. Here, we present optimized coarse-grained (CG) Martini force field parameters for N-glycans, calibrated against experimentally derived binding affinities for lectins. The CG bonded parameters were obtained from atomistic (ATM) simulations for different glycan topologies including high mannose and complex glycans with various branching patterns. In the CG model, additional elastic networks are shown to improve maintenance of the overall conformational distribution. Solvation free energies and octanol–water partition coefficients were also calculated for various N-glycan disaccharide combinations. When using standard Martini nonbonded parameters, we observed that glycans spontaneously aggregated in the solution and required down-scaling of their interactions for reproduction of ATM model radial distribution functions. We also optimized the nonbonded interactions for glycans interacting with seven lectin candidates and show that a relatively modest scaling down of the glycan-protein interactions can reproduce free energies obtained from experimental studies. These parameters should be of use in studying the role of glycans in various glycoproteins and carbohydrate binding proteins as well as their complexes, while benefiting from the efficiency of CG sampling.