Extension of CAVS coarse-grained model to phospholipid membranes: The importance of electrostatics

It is evident from experiment that electrostatic potential (or dipole potential) is positive inside PC or PE lipid bilayers in the absence of ions. MARTINI coarse-grained (CG) model, which has been widely used in simulating physical properties of lipid bilayers, fails to reproduce the positive value for the dipole potential in the membrane interior. Although the total dipole potential can be correctly described by the BMW/MARTINI model, the contribution from the ester dipoles, playing a nontrivial role in the electrostatic potential across lipid membranes, is neglected by this hybrid approach. In the ELBA CG model, the role of the ester dipoles is considered, but it is overweighed because various atomistic models have consistently shown that water is actually the leading contributor of dipole potential. Here, we present a CG approach by combining the BMW-like water model (namely CAVS model) with the ELBA-like lipid model proposed in this work. Our CG model was designed not only to correctly reproduce the positive values for the dipole potential inside PC and PE lipid bilayers but also to properly balance the individual contributions from the ester dipoles and water, surmounting the limitations of current CG models in the calculations of dipole potential. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.