IDPEnsembleTools: An open-source library for analysis of conformational ensembles of disordered proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) lack stable tertiary structure and instead exist as dynamic ensembles of conformations, playing essential roles in cellular regulation, signaling, and disease. As structural ensembles of IDPs become increasingly available through databases such as the Protein Ensemble Database (PED) and various computational generation methods, the need for systematic tools to analyze and compare these ensembles has grown. Here, we present IDPET (Intrinsically Disordered Protein Ensemble Tools), an open-source Python library designed to facilitate comprehensive analysis of IDP conformational ensembles. IDPET enables users to load and process ensembles from various sources and formats in parallel, compute global and local structural features, perform dimensionality reduction and clustering, and compare ensembles quantitatively using metrics based on Jensen–Shannon divergence (JSD). To demonstrate the package's functionalities, we analyze three ensembles of the unfolded drkN SH3 domain deposited in PED. This example illustrates how IDPET can extract structural descriptors, visualize conformational diversity, assess global and local features, and quantify differences between ensembles generated using distinct experimental and computational methods. By providing a reproducible and extensible framework, IDPET supports systematic exploration of ensemble features in IDPs. It is compatible with atomistic and coarse-grained models and can be easily integrated with community resources.