dRama: Differential Ramachandran Plot as a Tool to Analyze Subtle Changes in Protein Secondary Structure

Determination of the changes in protein structure is crucial for a better understanding of their function and properties, which is highly important in identifying the causes of the disease, new drug development, and clinical applications. The Ramachandran plot, displaying the set of torsional angles, phi (Φ) and psi (Ψ), of the protein backbone, serves as a popular and convenient tool for secondary structure analysis and interpretation. However, identifying subtle changes in protein structure is often hindered in traditional Ramachandran plot, especially with the large amount of data generated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In this paper, we proposed a useful and efficient tool, that is, differential Ramachandran plot (dRama), which enables to compare protein structures and extract the differences, providing a highly readable graphical representation. dRama is available at: https://github.com/MaksWolf44/dRama.