Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Adsorption of Amino Acid Side Chain Analogues and a Titanium Binding Peptide on the TiO2 (100) Surface

Adsorption profiles and adsorption free energies were determined for the side chain analogues of the 20 naturally occurring amino acids and a titanium binding peptide on the TiO2 (100) surface. Microsecond simulations with umbrella sampling and metadynamics were used to sample the free energy barriers associated with desolvation of strongly bound water molecules at the TiO2 surface. Polar and aromatic side chain analogues that hydrogen bond either to surface waters or directly to the metal oxide surface were found to be the strongest binders. Further, adsorption simulations of a 6 residue titanium binding peptide identified two binding modes on TiO2 (100). The peptide structure with lowest free energy was shown to be stabilized by a salt bridge between the end termini. A comparison between the free energies of the side chain analogues of the peptide sequence and the peptide itself shows that the free energy contributions are not additive. The simulations emphasize that tightly bound surface waters play a key role for peptide and protein structures when bound to inorganic surfaces in biological environments.