Systematic search of the potential energy surface of tetrapeptide glycine-phenylalanine- glycine-glycine （GFGG） in gas phase is conducted by a combination of PM3, HF and BHandHLYP methods. The conformational search method is described in detail. The relative electronic energies, zero point vibrational energies, dipole moments, rotational constants, vertical ionization energies and the temperature dependent conformational distributions for a number of important conformers are obtained. The structural characteristics of these conformers are analyzed and it is found that the entropic effect is a dominating factor in determining the relative stabilities of the conformers. The measurements of dipole moments and some characteristic IR mode are shown to be effective approaches to verify the theoreti- cal prediction. The structures of the low energy GFGG conformers are also analyzed in their connection with the secondary structures of proteins. Similarity between the local structures of low energy GFGG conformers and the α-helix is discussed and many β- and γ-turn local structures in GFGG conformers are found.
There is a growing interest in the study of structures and properties of biomolecules in gas phase. Applications of force fields are highly desirable for the computational efficiency of the gas phase study. To help the selection of force fields, the performances of five repre- sentative force fields for gaseous neutral, protonated, deprotonated and capped amino acids are systematically examined and compared. The tested properties include relative conforma- tional energies, energy differences between cis and trans structures, the number and strength of predicted hydrogen bonds, and the quality of the optimized structures. The results of BHandHLYP/6-311＋＋G（d,p） are used as the references. GROMOS53A6 and ENCADS are found to perform poorly for gaseous biomoleeules, while the performance of AMBER99SB, CHARMM27 and OPLSAA/L are comparable when applicable. Considering the general availability of the force field parameters, CHARMM27 is the most recommended, followed by OPLSAA/L, for the study of biomolecules in gas phase
