Characteristic Topological Features of Promoter Capture Hi-C Interaction Networks

Abstract

Current Hi-C technologies for chromosome conformation capture allow to understand a broad spectrum of functional interactions between genome elements. Although significant progress has been made into analysis of Hi-C data to identify the biologically significant features, many questions still remain open. In this paper we describe analysis methods of Hi-C (specifically PCHi-C) interaction networks that are strictly focused on topological properties of these networks. The main questions we are trying to answer are: (1) can topological properties of interaction networks for different cell types alone be sufficient to distinguish between these types, and what the most important of such properties are; (2) what is a typical structure of interaction networks and can we assign a biological significance to network structural elements or features?