Molecular Dynamics Simulation for the Dynamics and Kinetics of Folding Peptides in the Gas Phase

The conformations of flexible molecular species, such as oligomers and oligopeptides, and their interconversion in the gas phase have been probed by ion mobility spectrometry measurements. The ion motion is interpreted through the calculation of effective cross sections in the case of stable conformations of the macromolecules. However, when the molecular structures transform to each other as the ions collide with gas atoms during their flight through the drift tube, the introduction of an average cross section is required. To provide a direct way for the reproduction of the ion motion, we employ a nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation method and consider a molecular model that consists of two connected stiff cylindrical bodies interacting through an intramolecular model potential. With this procedure we have calculated the ion mobility as a function of temperature for a prototype peptide that converts between a helical and an extended globular form. The results are in good agreement with ion mobility spectrometry data confirming that an angular vibration coordinate can be used for the interpretation of the shifting of the drift-time distributions at high temperatures. The approach produces mean kinetic energies as well as various combined distributions of the ion degrees of freedom. It is easily applied to flexible macromolecular ions and can be extended to include additional degrees of freedom.