diffBUM-HMM: a robust statistical modeling approach for detecting RNA flexibility changes in high-throughput structure probing data

Abstract Advancing RNA structural probing techniques with next-generation sequencing has generated demands for complementary computational tools to robustly extract RNA structural information amidst sampling noise and variability. We present diffBUM-HMM, a noise-aware model that enables accurate det...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Paolo Marangio, Ka Ying Toby Law, Guido Sanguinetti, Sander Granneman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2021-05-01
Series:Genome Biology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02379-y
Description
Summary:Abstract Advancing RNA structural probing techniques with next-generation sequencing has generated demands for complementary computational tools to robustly extract RNA structural information amidst sampling noise and variability. We present diffBUM-HMM, a noise-aware model that enables accurate detection of RNA flexibility and conformational changes from high-throughput RNA structure-probing data. diffBUM-HMM is widely compatible, accounting for sampling variation and sequence coverage biases, and displays higher sensitivity than existing methods while robust against false positives. Our analyses of datasets generated with a variety of RNA probing chemistries demonstrate the value of diffBUM-HMM for quantitatively detecting RNA structural changes and RNA-binding protein binding sites.
ISSN:1474-760X