Visualizing and Annotating Hi-C Data

Abstract

Epigenomics studies require the combined analysis and integration of multiple types of data and annotations to extract biologically relevant information. In this context, sophisticated data visualization techniques are fundamental to identify meaningful patterns in the data in relation to the genomic coordinates. Data visualization for Hi-C contact matrices is even more complex as each data point represents the interaction between two distant genomic loci and their three-dimensional positioning must be considered. In this chapter we illustrate how to obtain sophisticated plots showing Hi-C data along with annotations for other genomic features and epigenomics data. For the example code used in this chapter we rely on a Bioconductor package able to handle even high-resolution Hi-C datasets. The provided examples are explained in details and highly customizable, thus facilitating their extension and adoption by end users for other studies.

Keywords: Bioinformatics; Chromatin architecture; Data visualization; Hi-C; Topological domains.