Multiscale identification of topological domains in chromatin

Abstract

Recent chromosome conformation capture experiments have led to the discovery of dense, contiguous, megabase-sized topological domains that are similar across cell types, are conserved across species. These domains are strongly correlated with a number of chromatin markers and have since been included in a number of analyses. However, functionally relevant domains may exist at multiple length scales. We introduce a new and efficient algorithm that is able to capture persistent domains across various resolutions by adjusting a single scale parameter. The identified novel domains are substantially different from domains reported previously and are highly enriched for insulating factor CTCF binding and histone modifications at the boundaries. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.