An implicit solvent coarse-grained （CG） lipid model using three beads to reflect the basically molecular structure of two-tailed lipid is developed. In this model, the nonbonded interaction employs a variant MIE potential and the bonded interaction utilizes a Harmonic potential form. The CG force field parameters are achieved by matching the structural and mechan-ical properties of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine （DPPC） bilayers. The model successfully reproduces the formation of lipid bilayer from a random initial state and the spontaneous vesiculation of lipid bilayer from a disk-like structure. After that, the model is used to sys-tematically study the vesiculation processes of spherical and cylindrical lipid droplets. The results show that the present CG model can effectively simulate the formation and evolution of mesoscale complex vesicles.
Amphiphilic lipid molecules can form various micelles depending on not only their molecular composition but also their self-assembly pathway. In this work, coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations have been applied to study the micellization behaviors of mixed dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine （DPPC）/hexadecylphosphocholine （HPC） droplets. By vary- ing DPPC/HPC composition and the size of lipid droplets, various micelles such as spherical and nonspherical （oblate or prolate） vesicles, disk-like micelles, double or single ring-like and worm-like micelles were observed. It is found that the lipid droplet as an initial state favors forming vesicles and ring-like micelles due to in situ micellization. Our simulation results demonstrate that using special initial conditions combined with various molecular compositions is an effective way to tune lipid micellar structure.
