Global quantitative modeling of chromatin factor interactions

PLoS Comput Biol. 2014 Mar 27;10(3):e1003525. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003525. eCollection 2014 Mar.

Abstract

Chromatin is the driver of gene regulation, yet understanding the molecular interactions underlying chromatin factor combinatorial patterns (or the "chromatin codes") remains a fundamental challenge in chromatin biology. Here we developed a global modeling framework that leverages chromatin profiling data to produce a systems-level view of the macromolecular complex of chromatin. Our model ultilizes maximum entropy modeling with regularization-based structure learning to statistically dissect dependencies between chromatin factors and produce an accurate probability distribution of chromatin code. Our unsupervised quantitative model, trained on genome-wide chromatin profiles of 73 histone marks and chromatin proteins from modENCODE, enabled making various data-driven inferences about chromatin profiles and interactions. We provided a highly accurate predictor of chromatin factor pairwise interactions validated by known experimental evidence, and for the first time enabled higher-order interaction prediction. Our predictions can thus help guide future experimental studies. The model can also serve as an inference engine for predicting unknown chromatin profiles--we demonstrated that with this approach we can leverage data from well-characterized cell types to help understand less-studied cell type or conditions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Animals
  • Area Under Curve
  • Chromatin / chemistry*
  • Computational Biology
  • Drosophila melanogaster
  • Entropy
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Histones / chemistry
  • Models, Statistical
  • Normal Distribution
  • Probability
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Systems Biology
  • Transcription Factors / metabolism
  • Transcription, Genetic

Substances

  • Chromatin
  • Histones
  • Transcription Factors