at2mem for membrane embedding of CHARMM system

April 2, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

at2mem can be used to embed a CHARMM input in a membrane, within a solvated box (output is also a CHARMM system). This relies on intermediate coarse-graining of the system, so a CG mapping must be available (a list of the mappings included in CCD2MD by default is given here). at2mem requires the installation of MemPrOD (for membrane embedding) and cg2at-lite (for conversion back to an atomistic representation) -- it is recommended these are installed via

pip install "CCD2MD[membrane]"

Any proteins present are converted via martinize2. Any ligands with defined mappings can be converted as well. Membrane embedding and solvation is performed via MemPrO/[MemPrOD[(https://github.com/ShufflerBardOnTheEdge/MemPrOD)). This requires the optional dependency of MemPrOD.

If desired, various MD operations (via GROMACS) may be performed; these include energy minimisation, equilibration, and generation of a production tpr file. These operations can be performed either on the CG system before converting back to an atomistic representation, on the final AA system, or both.

The use of a configuration file is recommended, an example can be found here. The names in the configuration file correspond to the command line arguments.

A schematic for the use of at2mem is presented below. The argument -CF can optionally be used to specify the inputs. For more details, please see the full description below.

at2mem workflow

Usage

at2mem INPUT_FILE OUTPUT_FILE [-CF <config_file>] [-T <title>] [-ndx] [-g <gmx>] [-M <martinize>] [-mem [<membrane>]] [-C <conc>] [-mp <mempro>] [-mdef <memprod>] [-ncpu <num_cpus&;] [-at <cg2at>] [-nl] [(-E [<elastic>]) | (-G <go>)] [-M <martinize>] [-CGEM [<CGEM>]] [-rCGEM [<run_CGEM>]] [-CGeq [<CGeq>]] [-rCGeq [<CGeq>]] [-AAEM [<AAEM>]] [-rAAEM [<run_AAEM>]] [-AAeq [<AAeq>]] [-rAAeq [<AAeq>]] [-AAprd [<AAprd>]]

Required arguments

INPUT_FILE name of the file to convert -- the extension must be either .cif, .pdb or .gro

OUTPUT_FILE name of the converted file. This will be written as a pdb file

Configuration file

-CF/--configuration <config_file> gives a configuration file which can be used to pass input parameters to at2cg. The input file and output file can be specified within the configuration file. An example configuration file can be found here](https://github.com/keb721/CCD2MD/blob/main/docs/ccd2cg_input.txt).

Optional arugments -- system parameters

-T/--title <title> specified a title for the generated PDB output file. If not present, the default is the title of the input file (if .pdb and a title is present), otherwise the name of the input file.

-ndx/--make_ndx is a flag to create a GROMACS index file. This may be necessary for correct generation of equilibration/production tprs. Index file creation is currently required to be interactive. If CG MD is performed, this will create an index file before CG MD and after conversion back to atomistic

-g/--gmx <gmx> is a flag to give the location of a GROMACS executable -- this will also be passed to cg2at. If unspecified, 'gmx' will be used.

Optional arguments -- membrane embedding

-mem/--membrane [<membrane>] acts as a flag to embed the system in a membrane. Optionally, it may be followed by the arguments to be passed to Insane4MemPrO (for more information see here). The most relevant parameter is the membrane composition in the form -u POPE:7 -u POPG:2 -u CARD:1 -l POPE:7 -l POPG:2 -l CARD:1 where the numbers give the ratio of lipids, -u represents the upper leaflet and -l represents the lower leaflet. If not specified, both leaflets are pure POPC.

-C/--conc <conc> passes a single number giving the concentration of NaCl in the system, where the charge is balanced

-mp/--mempro <mempro> passes optional arguments to MemPrO. Default is 5 grid points and 15 minimisation operations

-mdef/--memprod <memprod> is an optional flag to calculate the deformation of the membrane around the protein usingMemPrOD -- if ommitted no deformations will be calculated. Optional arguments for MemPrOD will be passed after this flag, otherwise the MemPrOD defaults will be used.

-ncpu/--num_cpus <num_cpus> passes the environment variable NUM_CPUs to MemPrO. If unset, 1 CPU will be used.

-at/--cg2at <cg2at> passes additional arguments to CG2AT-lite. Add additional arguments after this flag -- note that this may require interactivity as it may remove assumptions about fragment locations. The GROMACS version cannot be specified separately for at2mem and CG2AT-lite -- -g/--gmx counts as an at2mem flag.

CG conversion options

-nl/--newlipidome is a flag indicating that the new mappings for the Martini 3 lipidome (from DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.5c00755 should be used. The new lipidome mappings available are documented here.

-E/--elastic [<elastic>] specifies that protein secondary structure should be biased using an elastic network (default). Additional options for the elastic network in martinize may be added added this flag; if omitted the defaults will be used.

-G/--go <go> specifies that protein secondary structure should be biased using a go network. Required and optional parameters should be added after this flag.

-M/--martinize <martinize> is used for any additonal optional arguments which should be passed to martinize2 for protein CG conversion.

Optional arguments -- CG MD simulations

-CGEM/--CG_energy_minimise [<CGEM>] generates/runs an energy minimisation tpr for the intermediate CG system. Additional arguments for grompp may be added after this flag. If none are added, the default energy minimisation script will be used.

-rCGEM/--run_CG_energy_minimise [<CGEM>] runs energy minimisation for the intermediate CG system. Additional arguments for mdrun may be added after this flag.

-CGeq/--CG_equil [<CGeq>] generates/runs an equilibration tpr for the intermediate CG system. Additional arguments for grompp may be added after this flag. If none are added, the default CG equilibration script -- which depends on whether a memvbrane is present or not -- will be used.

-rCGeq/--run_CG_equil [<rCGeq>] runs equilibration for the output CG system. Additional arguments for mdrun may be added after this flag.

Optional arguments -- AA MD simulations

-AAEM/--AA_energy_minimise [<AAEM>] generates an energy minimisation tpr for the output AA system. Additional arguments for grompp may be added after this flag. If none are added, the default energy minimisation script will be used.

-rAAEM/--run_AA_energy_minimise [<run_AAEM>] runs energy minimisation for the output AA system. Additional arguments for mdrun may be added after this flag.

-AAeq/--AA_equil [<AAeq>] generates an equilibration tpr for the output AA system. Additional arguments for grompp may be added after this flag. If none are added, the default AA equilibration script -- which depends on whether a memvbrane is present or not -- will be used.

-rAAeq/--run_AA_equil [<run_AAeq>] runs equilibration for the output AA system. Additional arguments for mdrun may be added after this flag.

-AAprd/--AA_prod [<AAprd>] generates a production tpr for the output AA system. Additional arguments for grompp may be added after this flag. If none are added, the default AA equilibration script -- which depends on whether a membrane is present or not -- will be used.

Additional information -- MD simulations

Intermediate (CG) MD

  • If energy minimisation and equilibration are run, the output of energy minimisation will become the input for equilibration and the output of equilibration will be converted back to atomistic
  • For energy minimisation alone, the output of this will be converted back to atomistic
  • If any equilibration generation is initiated, energy minimisation will be performed, even in the absence of a -CGEM/-rCGEM flag. The default script and parameters will be used. The output of the energy minimisation will be used as the input to the equilibration
  • Generation of an energy minimisation file will run energy minimisation
  • Generation of an equilibration file will run equilibration
  • The presence of rCGEM/-rCGeq alone will run energy minimisation/equilibration using the default parameters

Final (AA) MD

  • If energy minimisation, equilibration, and production are run, the output of energy minimisation will become the innput for equilibration and the output of equilibration will become the input of production
  • If any equilibration/production generation is initiated, energy minimisation will be performed, even in the absence of a -AAEM/-rAAEM flag. The default script and parameters will be used. The output of the energy minimisation will be used as the input to the equilibration/production
  • If an equilibration file and a production file are generated, the equilibration will be run (even in the absence of -rAAeq) and used as the input
  • The presence of rAAEM/-rAAeq alone will run energy minimisation/equilibration using the default parameters