Molecular Modeling of Peptides

This article presents a review of the field of molecular modeling of peptides. The main focus is on atomistic modeling with molecular mechanics potentials. The description of peptide conformations and solvation through potentials is discussed. Several important computer simulation methods are briefly introduced, including molecular dynamics, accelerated sampling approaches such as replica-exchange and metadynamics, free energy simulations and kinetic network models like Milestoning. Examples of recent applications for predictions of structure, kinetics, and interactions of peptides with complex environments are described. The reliability of current simulation methods is analyzed by comparison of computational predictions obtained using different models with each other and with experimental data. A brief discussion of coarse-grained modeling and future directions is also presented.