Most of the tools are available in bin/ or bin_arch2/ after compilation, and the scripts are in the auxi/ directory. These tools are integrated into the SDA7 software, and use many classes defined in the library libsda.so.

However, a few programs have not yet been integrated and are only copies from SDA 6. Their source codes are in auxi/. When using these tools, be aware that they use a static allocation of memory and often define their own parameters (e.g. van der Waals radii).

Several examples of tools usage can be found in the folders with the exemplary runs.

If you need help, a full description of each tool with a list of arguments is provided by executing the program without any arguments!

Analysis tools
auxi/Bootstrap_multiCPU.py
Analyze output when the bootstrap option is activated in the SDA input file.
This tool calculates the average and standard deviation from a single simulation and can be applied to:
  • Association rate constant
  • Electron transfer rate constant
  • First passage time (under testing)
Bootstraping is a statistical method based on the resampling of the original data.
A simple implementation is used to obtain the standard deviation, it typically requires 100-200 resamples.
Its usage and advantages are demonstrated in the Barnase-Barstar association rate example.

The tool has dependencies on some python libraries (numpy and multiprocess).
clustering programs (for the two solute case)
These are used for the analysis of solute-solute or solute-surface docking results from the complexes files.

There are 3 algorithms available for clustering the docking results:

  • auxi/clust : an average-linkage algorithm
  • auxi/k-mean.py : a K-Mean algorithm

More details on available on the Clustering page.

auxi/myClustering_complexes-SDA7.py
A postprocessing script that allows to combine encounter complexes with a post-simulation defined RMSD threshold (default is 3 )
cluster_sdamm
Converts a trajectories file from an SDAMM simulation with surface into a complexes file of complexes between the surface and a specified tyoe of solute.
contacts_sdamm
Analyze contacts between solute pairs, based on an SDAMM trajectory file.
energy_analyze
Analyze energies (get average values) from a trajectory file.
get_adsorption_levels.py
Count and plot, as a function of time, the number of solutes whose center is within a specified distance of a surface. This python script is in the auxi/adsoroption subdirectory and cann be called using the shell script analyze.sh in the same directory.
nos2rates
Extract data on association rates from the main sda output file (k_on and electron transfer rates). Standard deviations from different runs are computed if multiple outputs are provided
rdf
Calculate radial distribution functions from an SDAMM trajectory file. For simulations which contain more than one type of solute, the distribution of one solute type around another type can be calculated.
read_record
Read complexes or trajectory file and perform the following tasks:
  • extraction of energy terms and basic summary;
  • conversion between ascii and binary formats;
  • splitting of one file with complexes of the solute in different conformations into several files, one for each conformation;
  • transformation of the 'new' complexes format into the old one, which can then be clustered further with the clustering utility provided;
  • extraction of specific conformations from the complexes file;
  • concatenation of several trajectories into one;
  • extraction of specific frames from a trajectory file;
  • extraction of configurations in which the two solutes are within a specified distance (only for trajectories recorded from the sda_2proteins type of simulation)
  • conversion of the trajectory in the sdamm trajectory format used by sdamm
trajectory2dcd
Read trajectory or complexes file and produce pdb file of the docked position or a trajectory in dcd format. Input can be in ascii or binary format
trans_diffusion and rot_diffusion
Compute diffusion coefficients from an SDAMM trajectory
Preparation tools
ecm tools
They are discussed on the specific page for ECM.
The FAQ gives also some advice for organizing and validating the results.
genbox
Set up an initial configuration for SDAMM runs.

In genbox, a user can request that a certain total number of molecules can be placed in a simulation box, with the cubic dimensions of the box, and the relative number of molecules of each solute type, calculated from the mass concentration of each solute. An example of an input file for such a calculation can be downloaded here. An immobile surface can also be included by setting the surf flag to 1, and entering the surface as the final molecule type (as shown in the file above. In this case, the x and y dimensions of the box will be fixed to those of the surface, and the simulated volume will be set by varying only the z dimension.

Alternatively, a user can request that a box of fixed dimensions be filled with solutes at a fixed mass concentration. In this case, number of molecules of each solute type, and the total number of solutes, is calculated by the tool. An example of an input file for such a calculation can be downloaded here. In this case, including a surface is not currently supported.

In some cases, it may be desirable to simulate a fixed number of solutes of one molecule type within a fixed concentration of another. A fixed number of solutes of a certain molecule type can be added by setting its mass concentration (with the dens option) to a negative number. In cases where the box size is calculated by genbox, the fixed-number solutes will be ignored when calculating the box size. Note that in these cases, concentration information must be supplied for at least one solute type, or the box dimensions can not be calculated.

By default, genbox is very conservative in avoiding solute overlaps when placing solutes. At high concentrations, it may be necessary to change the parameter fit_factor in the genbox input file to achieve the required solute concentration. The parameter can be set to any value between 0.0 and 1.0. When fit_factor is set to 1.0 (its default), genbox is at its most conservative. When fit_factor is set to 0.0, no checks for overlaps are made. When using a value lower than 1.0, it is important to check the early stages of the trajectory, to ensure that any overlaps are removed during equilibration. It is best to choose the highest value possible to achieve the desired concentration, and only lower the value where necessary.

A second parameter, max_iter, sets the number of times that genbox will attempt to place each solute in the simulation box, while avoiding overlaps. This can be increased from its default value of 5000 in the input file, although changing this alone may still not allow the the desired concentration to be reached, and it will increase the time required to run genbox.

In genbox, there is an option to order the placing of solutes in the simulation by size, with larger solutes placed first. This can be turned on by setting the sort option to 1. This may allow a better packing of solutes, and allow a larger fit_factor to be used, but it can lead to strange packings, where all smaller solutes are placed near the box edge.

make_edhdlj_grid
Create UHBD-format grids from a pdb input file for the following interaction types:
  • Electrostatic desolvation
  • Nonpolar desolvation
  • Soft-core repulsion (used for SDAMM only)
For details of these interactions, see the the appendix of Martinez et al (2015).
UHBD grids can be visualized directly with VMD, or converted into a DX for use with Pymol (convert_grid tool)
It can be run in a combined way as:
make_edhd_grid -ed ed.in -hd hd.in -ljrep ljrep.in
This code is parallelised with OpenMP.

For the electrostatic desolvation energy, the input file, ed.in, has the following format:

#------------------------------ h,ndimx,ndimy,ndimz
1.0, 110,110,110
#------------------------------ iostr,epssol,rion
100. 78. 2.0
#------------------------------ pfile
pqrnoh_h5a.pdb
#------------------------------ efile, iform
h5a_ed.grd
0

Here, the first 4 parameters give the electrostatic desolvation grid spacing (Å) and the grid dimensions along the x,y,z axes. The second set of parameters describe the ionic strength (mM), solvent dielectric constant and ion radius (Å) relevant for defining the ionic strength conditions. Note that, depending on the grid multiplication factor used in the sda input file, in may be necessary to set the ionic strength (iostr) to zero, (for details, see "Multiplicative factors applied to the grids" in the "Description of input files"). Next, the name of the PDB file to read from is given. The last parameters are the name of the output file containing the grid and whether it should be in binary (0) or ascii (1) format.


For the nonpolar desolvation input, hd.in, the format is similar:

#------------------------------ h,ndimx,ndimy,ndimz
1.0, 75, 75, 75
#------------------------------ a,b,factor
3.10, 4.35, 0.5
#------------------------------ pfile
pqrnoh_h5a.pdb
#------------------------------ efile, iform
h5a_hd.grd
0
The first set of parameters is identical to the ed.in file. The second set of parameters specifies the region where this potential is defined and the scaling factor for the calculated potential.
This procedure assigns a value of gamma (parameter "factor" in the input file above) to all points within distance a (in Å) from the surface of the solute, zero if a point is further than b (in Å) from the surface and a linearly interpolated value if a point is in between a and b:

In SDA, the solvent accessibility values of the atoms of one solute are multiplied by the nonpolar desolvation values of the other solute. As shown in the plot below, there are several different values of parameters a and b that give the buried areas to an accuracy of ca 10%. We recommend using the values: a =3.10, b = 4.35, and factor = 0.5.

The last input file, ljrep.in, is required for the SDAMM-type of simulation, and optional for two solute simulations (where repulsion is normally modelled using excluded volume checks):
#------------------------------ h,ndimx,ndimy,ndimz
1.0, 60,60,60
#------------------------------ factor, nexp, fraction
4096.d0, 6, 1.5d0
#------------------------------ pfile
prqnoh_h5a.pdb
#------------------------------ efile, iform
ha5_ljrep.grd
0

The potential is of the form:

LJ-rep equation

where summation is over all atoms of the solute, and r_i and a_i are the position of the center and the radius of atom i, respectively. The value of fraction can be tuned to vary the smoothness of the function, while the nexp value defines the decay.

new LJ-rep equation

The plot above shows the value of the repulsive potential at distances (Å) from a single atom of radius a = 1.8 Å for two parameterisations that have been used in SDAMM publications (see Mereghetti et al. (2010) for the parameterisation of the red potential, and Mereghetti and Wade (2011) for the blue. Note that the ultimate interaction energy between a pair of solutes (See Equation A8) depends also on the value of lj_rep_fct defined in the input file used during SDA simulations, with the product of factor and lj_rep_fct giving γ in Equation A9. With both of the parameterisations shown in this plot, lj_rep_fct = 0.0156 should be used.

nda-pairs
From a structure of a bimolecular complex, compute all possible donor-acceptor pairs. This list is used for the calculation of association rates.
rxna2rxnaC
Merge the output of nda-pairs (2 files, one for each solute) into a single one which is used as input in SDA7 (*.rxna file)
rxna2rxnaC p1.rxna p2.rxna [outFileName] [dist] [specificity]

Where p1.rxna and p2.rxna are the output files from the nda-pairs tool. Optionally, it is possible to specify the filename of the output file (default: p12.rxna), the cutoff distance for the reaction pairs (default: 6 Å) and the type of criteria (specificity (=0) or nonspecific (=1), default: 1)
Tools specific to the preparation of Lennard-Jones grids (GolP force fied for simulations of proteins on Au(111) surface; used in ProMetCS)
auxi/LJ-GRID-preparation/prepLJgrids.py
Create UHBD-format grids for Lennard-Jones interactions.
This code is parallelised on one compute node and uses by default all available cores. To limit this, you can set the environment variable OMP_NUM_THREADS to the desired number. Also you might need to increase the stackspace by setting ulimit -s 1000000.
The program prepLJgrids.py calls three other scripts- auxi/LJ-GRID-preparation/change_atomNames.sh, auxi/LJ-GRID-preparation/PrepareProbeFile.py, and auxi/LJ-GRID-preparation/mk_LJ_grd:
  • change_atomNames.sh - fixes atom names in a protein pdb file according to the OPLS format;
  • PrepareProbeFile.py - assignes Lennard-Jones parameters to each type of the probe (gold atom, 2 types) and protein atoms. Output file is "ProbeFile.txt".
  • mk_LJ_grd - generates Lennard-Jones grids for each probe type (i.e. grids for Au(111) surface in GolP force field) using "ProbeFile.txt" as an input.
Files required for running prepLJgrids.py:
  • pdb files for a protein and a surface
  • opls database containing Lennard-Jones parameters of OPLS and GolP force fields (qtable_Parameters_30_10_09.dat)
  • input file prepLJgrids_input with parameters of the grid to be simulated and with additional Lennard-Jones parameters for interaction of specific groups (for example, aromatic rings) with gold.
An example of the input file, prepLJgrids_input:

#optional parameter - grid step size in A, default value is 0.2 A (the optimal value is <0.3A)
h 0.2
#optional parameters - grid size in A, in x,y and z direction (the optimal value can be defined as (protein_size+20)/h
ndimx 300
ndimy 300
ndimz 300
#essential parameter - filename of the protein structure in PDB format
pfile p2.pdb
#optional parameter - filename of the LJ Grid, note that some prefix is added by the mk_LJ_grd_executable
efile LJp2
#optional parameter - format of the LJ Grid. 1=ASCII,0=BINARY. Default value is 1
iform 0
#optional parameter - filename of the output probefile which is created by PrepareProbeFile_executable
probef ProbeFile.txt
#optional parameter - default 0. If 1 more output is generated by the mk_LJ_grd_executable.
ioset 0
#optional parameter - at distance larger then the cutoff the energy is set to zero. default value 10A
cutoff 10
#essential parameter - filename of the suface structure in PDB format
#SurfaceFile gold_3layers.pdb
SurfaceFile gold3layersflex.pdb
#essential parameter - filename of the qtable
ParameterFile qtable_Parameters_30_10_09.dat
#optional parameter - name of the inputfile which is used as the input for mk_LJ_grd_executable. This file is created automatically, no need to change this parameter.
LJinput lj2.in
#optional parameter - At small distance from the atom (r < sigma_ii/2) the energy equals OVERLAPENERGY. default value is 1.e1 kcal/mol
OVERLAPENERGY 1.e1
# Optional parameter: executable file for calculation of the LJ-grid
#mk_LJ_grd_executable ../../../bin/mk_LJ_grd
############### ADD ADDITIONAL PROBES AS IN THE ProbeFile Format from the PrepareProbeFile_executable KEYWORDS: PROBE,INTERACT ###############################
PROBE Av_CEN
INTERACT ND1_HIE 2.75 0.3824 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT SG_CYS 2.0 0.6
INTERACT CG_TYR 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD1_TYR 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD2_TYR 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE1_TYR 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE2_TYR 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CZ_TYR 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CG_TRP 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD1_TRP 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD2_TRP 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE2_TRP 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE3_TRP 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CZ2_TRP 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CZ3_TRP 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CH2_TRP 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CG_PHE 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD1_PHE 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD2_PHE 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE1_PHE 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE2_PHE 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CZ_PHE 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CG_HIE 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD2_HIE 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE1_HIE 3.37045990927 0.148089 # name sigma epsilon
PROBE Au_CEN 002
INTERACT ND1_HIE 2.75 0.3824 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CG_TYR 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD1_TYR 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD2_TYR 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE1_TYR 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE2_TYR 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CZ_TYR 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CG_TRP 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD1_TRP 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD2_TRP 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE2_TRP 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE3_TRP 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CZ2_TRP 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CZ3_TRP 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CH2_TRP 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CG_PHE 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD1_PHE 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD2_PHE 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE1_PHE 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE2_PHE 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CZ_PHE 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CG_HIE 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CD2_HIE 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
INTERACT CE1_HIE 3.37045990927 0.104169 # name sigma epsilon
DT-Grid tools for grid conversion
DT-Grid is used to efficiently compress the data stored in interaction grids to save memory and storage resources.
Grid files with DT-Grid format can safely be input to SDA when created using the UHBD2dtgrid tool (see below).
SDA determines the type (UHBD or DT-Grid) of an input grid internally from its contents.
UHBD2dtgrid
Read a potential or energy grid file of type 'UHBD' and convert it to DT-Grid file.
The program reads the interaction grid (created beforehands) of a molecule along with a structure file (PDB or PQR).
In case of an excluded volume grid, no input grid file is required. The program calculates the excluded volume and stores directly in DT-Grid format.

The workflow the UHBD2dtgrid program is shown below:


USAGE:
./UHBD2dtgrid -g uhbd.grd -p protein.pdb -f binary [-other options]

Options:

-g : The UHBD file name to be converted into DT-Grid

-p : The PDB file name to be used to generate the molecular skin

-f : The output file format. There are two options: Binary and ASCII. You can save your DT-Grid using the format you want

-o : The name of the outputting *.dtgrd file name. The grid file will be named as 'dt.dtgrid' unless this option is used

-s : The thickness of the skin around the surface of the molecule. A default value of 2.0 Angstrom will be used unless this option is used

-sp : The spacing required to build the exclusion grid. A default value of 0.5 Angstrom will be used unless this option is used

-pr : The size of the probe used to compute the molecular skin. A default value of 1.7 Angstrom will be used unless this option is used

-type : Type of grid: exclusion grid (0), normal grid (1). Default value is 1. No UHBD file is required for an exclusion grid

-h : Displays the usage information and terminates the execution!

dtgrid2UHBD
Read a potential or energy file of type DT-Grid and convert it to UHBD file.
Note that not all information will be recovered as the grid points that lie outside the interaction field will store a constant value provided by the user upon conversion to UHBD format!

USAGE:
./dtgrid2UHBD -g dt.dtgrd -f binary [-other options]

Options:

-g : The DT-Grid file name to be converted into UHBD

-f : The output file format. There are two options: Binary and ASCII. You can save your UHBD using the format you want

-o : The name of the outputting *.grd file name. The grid file will be named as 'dtgrid2.uhbd' unless this option is used

-v : The number used for omitted values during the conversion from UHBD to DT-Grid. A default value of 0.0 will be used unless this option is used

-excl : Input DT-Grid is of type exclusion. Grid is assumed to be a data grid, if this option is not used!

-h : Displays the usage information and terminates the execution!

Preparation tools for simulations of low-molecular weight organic compounds
These tools can be found in the auxi/Kon-rates-SmallMolecule/ directory. Note that the parameters for computations with low molecular weight compounds are currently under development.
ECM_Ligand.py
Script to generate effective charge sites and allocate test charges to small molecules.
See auxi/Kon-rates-SmallMolecule/Generate-ECMSites-SmallMol/usage.pdf for documentation.
ReactionCriteria.py
Script to identify reaction criteria for protein-small molecule complexes.
See auxi/Kon-rates-SmallMolecule/Generate-ReactionCriteria/usage.pdf for documentation.
Tools for benchmarking and unit-testing
measure_time_force_energy
Read an sda input file as for test_force_energy2, but measure the time of execution of the force and energy calculations.
test_force_energy2
Read an sda input file (sda-koff with complexes or restart for SDAMM) and compare the computation of forces and energies between all available methods.
Link to BrownDye/2
convert_sda_to_browndye.sh
The tool converts a SDA simulation setup into a setup that can be run by BrownDye/2 (https://browndye.ucsd.edu/) from UCSD, US.
The tool can be found in the auxi/convert-to-browndye directory. An example on how to use it can be found in the examples section.
An example of use convert_sda_to_browndye.sh can be found in README

[Back to Main documentation]

Privacy Imprint