ChromGene: gene-based modeling of epigenomic data

Abstract

Various computational approaches have been developed to annotate epigenomes on a per-position basis by modeling combinatorial and spatial patterns within epigenomic data. However, such annotations are less suitable for gene-based analyses. We present ChromGene, a method based on a mixture of learned hidden Markov models, to annotate genes based on multiple epigenomic maps across the gene body and flanks. We provide ChromGene assignments for over 100 cell and tissue types. We characterize the mixture components in terms of gene expression, constraint, and other gene annotations. The ChromGene method and annotations will provide a useful resource for gene-based epigenomic analyses.