HiC-DC+ enables systematic 3D interaction calls and differential analysis for Hi-C and HiChIP

Nat Commun. 2021 Jun 7;12(1):3366. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23749-x.

Abstract

Recent genome-wide chromosome conformation capture assays such as Hi-C and HiChIP have vastly expanded the resolution and throughput with which we can study 3D genomic architecture and function. Here, we present HiC-DC+, a software tool for Hi-C/HiChIP interaction calling and differential analysis using an efficient implementation of the HiC-DC statistical framework. HiC-DC+ integrates with popular preprocessing and visualization tools and includes topologically associating domain (TAD) and A/B compartment callers. We found that HiC-DC+ can more accurately identify enhancer-promoter interactions in H3K27ac HiChIP, as validated by CRISPRi-FlowFISH experiments, compared to existing methods. Differential HiC-DC+ analyses of published HiChIP and Hi-C data sets in settings of cellular differentiation and cohesin perturbation systematically and quantitatively recovers biological findings, including enhancer hubs, TAD aggregation, and the relationship between promoter-enhancer loop dynamics and gene expression changes. HiC-DC+ therefore provides a principled statistical analysis tool to empower genome-wide studies of 3D chromatin architecture and function.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Acetylation
  • Algorithms
  • Animals
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Chromatin / genetics*
  • Chromatin / metabolism
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Enhancer Elements, Genetic / genetics*
  • Genomics / methods
  • Histone Code / genetics
  • Histones / metabolism
  • Humans
  • K562 Cells
  • Lysine / metabolism
  • Mice
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic / genetics*

Substances

  • Chromatin
  • Histones
  • Lysine