DLoopCaller: A deep learning approach for predicting genome-wide chromatin loops by integrating accessible chromatin landscapes

PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 Oct 7;18(10):e1010572. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010572. eCollection 2022 Oct.

Abstract

In recent years, major advances have been made in various chromosome conformation capture technologies to further satisfy the needs of researchers for high-quality, high-resolution contact interactions. Discriminating the loops from genome-wide contact interactions is crucial for dissecting three-dimensional(3D) genome structure and function. Here, we present a deep learning method to predict genome-wide chromatin loops, called DLoopCaller, by combining accessible chromatin landscapes and raw Hi-C contact maps. Some available orthogonal data ChIA-PET/HiChIP and Capture Hi-C were used to generate positive samples with a wider contact matrix which provides the possibility to find more potential genome-wide chromatin loops. The experimental results demonstrate that DLoopCaller effectively improves the accuracy of predicting genome-wide chromatin loops compared to the state-of-the-art method Peakachu. Moreover, compared to two of most popular loop callers, such as HiCCUPS and Fit-Hi-C, DLoopCaller identifies some unique interactions. We conclude that a combination of chromatin landscapes on the one-dimensional genome contributes to understanding the 3D genome organization, and the identified chromatin loops reveal cell-type specificity and transcription factor motif co-enrichment across different cell lines and species.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chromatin* / genetics
  • Chromosomes
  • Deep Learning*
  • Genome / genetics
  • Transcription Factors / genetics

Substances

  • Chromatin
  • Transcription Factors

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the grant of National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFA0902600 & 2018AAA0100100) and partly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 62002266, 61932008, and 62073231), and Introduction Plan of High-end Foreign Experts (Grant no. G2021033002L) and, respectively, supported by the Key Project of Science and Technology of Guangxi (Grant no. 2021AB20147), Guangxi Natural Science Foundation (Grant nos. 2021JJA170204 & 2021JJA170199) and Guangxi Science and Technology Base and Talents Special Project (Grant nos. 2021AC19354 & 2021AC19394) to DSH. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.