estimateDivergence | R Documentation |
This function prepares the data for the estimation of information divergences and works as a wrapper calling the functions that compute selected information divergences of methylation levels. In the downstream analysis, the probability distribution of a given information divergence is used in Methyl-IT as the null hypothesis of the noise distribution, which permits, in a further signal detection step, the discrimination of the methylation regulatory signal from the background noise.
For the current version, two information divergences of methylation levels are computed by default: 1) Hellinger divergence (H) and 2) the total variation distance (TVD). In the context of methylation analysis TVD corresponds to the absolute difference of methylation levels. Here, although the variable reported is the total variation (TV), the variable actually used for the downstream analysis is TVD. Once a differentially methylated position (DMP) is identified in the downstream analysis, TV is the standard indicator of whether the cytosine position is hyper- or hypo-methylated.
The option to compute the J-information divergence (JD) is currently
provided. The motivation to introduce this divergence is given in the help
of function estimateJDiv
.
estimateDivergence(
ref,
indiv,
Bayesian = FALSE,
init.pars = NULL,
via.optim = TRUE,
columns = c(mC = 1, uC = 2),
min.coverage = 4,
and.min.cov = TRUE,
min.meth = 4,
min.umeth = 0,
min.sitecov = 4,
high.coverage = NULL,
percentile = 0.9999,
JD = FALSE,
jd.stat = FALSE,
ignore.strand = FALSE,
y.centroid = NULL,
num.cores = multicoreWorkers(),
tasks = 0L,
meth.level = FALSE,
loss.fun = c("linear", "huber", "smooth", "cauchy", "arctg"),
logbase = 2,
verbose = TRUE,
...
)
ref |
The GRanges object of the reference individual that will be used in the estimation of the information divergence. |
indiv |
A list of GRanges objects from the individuals that will be used in the estimation of the information divergence. |
Bayesian |
logical(1). Whether to perform the estimations based on posterior estimations of methylation levels. |
init.pars |
initial parameter values. Defaults is NULL and an initial
guess is estimated using |
via.optim |
Optional. Only used if Bayesian = TRUE Whether to
estimate beta distribution parameters via |
columns |
Vector of one or two integer numbers denoting the indexes of the columns where the methylated and unmethylated read counts are found or, if meth.level = TRUE, the columns corresponding to the methylation levels. If columns = NULL and meth.level = FALSE, then columns = c(1,2) is assumed. If columns = NULL and meth.level = TRUE, then columns = 1 is assumed. |
min.coverage |
An integer or an integer vector of length 2. Cytosine sites where the coverage in both samples, 'x' and 'y', are less than 'min.coverage' are discarded. The cytosine site is preserved, however, if the coverage is greater than 'min.coverage' in at least one sample. If 'min.coverage' is an integer vector, then the corresponding min coverage is applied to each sample. |
and.min.cov |
Logical. Whether to apply the logical AND to select the
cytosine sites based on |
min.meth |
An integer or an integer vector of length 2. Cytosine sites where the numbers of read counts of methylated cytosine in both samples, '1' and '2', are less than 'min.meth' are discarded. If 'min.meth' is an integer vector, then the corresponding min number of reads is applied to each sample. Default is min.meth = 4. |
min.umeth |
An integer or an integer vector of length 2
( |
min.sitecov |
An integer. The minimum total coverage. Only sites where
the total coverage |
high.coverage |
An integer for read counts. Cytosine sites having higher coverage than this are discarded. |
percentile |
Threshold to remove the outliers from each file and all files stacked. |
JD |
Logic (Default:FALSE). Option on whether to add a column with
values of J-information divergence (see |
jd.stat |
logical(1). Whether to compute the |
ignore.strand |
When set to TRUE, the strand information is ignored in
the overlap of |
y.centroid |
Optional. A |
num.cores |
The number of cores to use, i.e. at most how many child processes will be run simultaneously (see 'bplapply' function from BiocParallel package). |
tasks |
integer(1). The number of tasks per job. value must be a scalar
|
meth.level |
logical(1) Whether methylation levels are given in place of counts. Default is FALSE. |
loss.fun |
Loss function(s) used in the estimation of the best fitted
model to beta distribution (only applied when Bayesian=TRUE; see
(Loss function)). This
fitting uses the approach followed in in the R package
usefr. After
Loss 'linear' function works well for most of the methylation datasets with acceptable quality. |
logbase |
Logarithm base used to compute the JD (if JD = TRUE).
Logarithm base 2 is used as default (bit unit). Use logbase = |
verbose |
if TRUE, prints the function log to stdout |
... |
Optional parameters for |
If read counts are provided, then Hellinger divergence is computed as given in the first formula from Theorem 1 from reference (1). In the present case:
H = 2 (n_1 + 1) (n_2 + 1)*((\sqrt(p_1) - \sqrt(p_2))^2 +
(\sqrt(1-p_2) - \sqrt(1-p_2))^2)/(n_1 + n_2 + 2)
where n_1
and n_2
are the coverage for the control and
treatment, respectively. Notice that each row from the matrix of counts
correspond to a single cytosine position and has four values corresponding
to 'mC1' and 'uC1' (control), and mC2' and 'uC2' for treatment.
According with the above equation, to estimate Hellinger divergence, not
only the methylation levels are considered in the estimation of H, but also
the control and treatment coverage at each given cytosine site. At this
point, it is worthy to do mention that if the reference sample is derived
with function poolFromGRlist
using the 'sum' of read counts to
compute a methylation pool, then 'min.coverage' parameter value must be used
to prevent an over estimation of the divergence for low coverage cytosines
sites. For example, if a reference sample is derived as the methylation pool
of read count sum from 3 individuals and we want to consider only
methylation sites with minimum coverage of 4, then we can set
min.coverage = c(12, 4)
, where the number 12 (3 x 4) is the minimum
coverage requested for the each cytosine site in the reference sample.
If the methylation levels are provided in place of counts, then the Hellinger divergence is computed as:
H = (\sqrt(p_1) - \sqrt(p_2))^2 + (\sqrt(1 - p_1) - \sqrt(1 - p_2))^2
This formula assumes that the probability vectors derived from the
methylation levels p_i = c(p_{i1}, 1 - p_{i2}
) (see
estimateHellingerDiv
are an unbiased estimation of the
expected one. The function applies a pairwise filtering after building a
single GRanges from the two GRanges objects. Experimentally available
cytosine sites are paired using the function uniqueGRanges
.
It is important to observe that several filtering conditions are provided to
select biological meaningful cytosine positions, which prevent to carry
experimental errors in the downstream analyses. By filtering the read count
we try to remove bad quality data, which would be in the edge of the
experimental error originated by the BS-seq sequencing. It is user
responsibility to check whether cytosine positions used in the analysis are
biological meaningful. For example, a cytosine position with counts mC1 = 10
and uC1 = 20 in the 'ref' sample and mC2 = 1 and uC2 = 0 in an 'indv' sample
will lead to methylation levels p1 = 0.333 and p2 = 1, respectively, and TV
= p2 - p1 = 0.667, which apparently indicates a hypermethylated site.
However, there are not enough reads supporting p2 = 1. A Bayesian estimation
of TV will reveal that this site would be, in fact, hypomethylated. So, the
best practice will be the removing of sites like that. This particular case
is removed under the default settings: min.coverage = 4, min.meth = 4, and
min.umeth = 0 (see example for function uniqueGRfilterByCov
,
called by 'estimateDivergence').
A source of bias is originated by missing cytosine sites. Missing data
are frequently found in experimental data sets and, in particular, in
bisulfite genomic sequencing data. Typically, in statistical analyses, the
bias originated by missing data (for given variable) is mitigated by using
the mean of the known values for the corresponding variable. That is, in
present case, if the reads for some cytosine site are missed in a sample
from a set of, e.g., three individuals, then the means of reads (methylated
and unmethylated) for such site are applied as an estimation of the best
expected ("guessed") value of missed reads. Obviously, if the reads are
missed in all the samples, then the site is discarded. See examples from
function uniqueGRfilterByCov
.
Notice that filtering the data sets to remove undesired cytosine sites is user responsibility. Here, for the sake of facilitating a smooth transition to MethylIT pipeline, we provide some filtering options. It is up to the user whether to apply them or not. For example, if the user wants no filtering at all, then just set: min.coverage = 0, and.min.cov = FALSE, min.meth = 0, min.umeth = 0, min.sitecov = 0, high.coverage = NULL, percentile = 1.
An object from 'infDiv' class with the four columns of counts, the information divergence, and additional columns:
The original matrix of methylated
c_{ij}
and unmethylated t_{ij}
read counts from control
j=1
and treatment j=2
samples at positions i
.
methylation levels for control and treatment, respectively. If 'meth.level = FALSE' and 'Bayesian = TRUE' (recommended), 'p1' and 'p2' are estimated following the Bayesian approach described in reference (1).
total variation TV = p2 - p1
total variation based on simple counts:
TV=c_1/(c_1+t_1)-c_2/(c_2+t_2)
, where c_i
and t_i
denote
methylated and unmethylated read counts, respectively.
If Bayesian = TRUE, the results are based on the posterior estimations of methylation levels. if meth.level = FALSE', then 'hdiv' is computed as given in reference (2), otherwise as:
hdiv = (sqrt(p_1) - sqrt(p_2))^2 + (sqrt(1 -p_1) -
sqrt(1 - p_2))^2
Robersy Sanchez (https://genomaths.com)
Sanchez R, Yang X, Maher T, Mackenzie S. Discrimination of DNA Methylation Signal from Background Variation for Clinical Diagnostics. Int. J. Mol Sci, 2019, 20:5343.
Basu A., Mandal A., Pardo L. Hypothesis testing for two discrete populations based on the Hellinger distance. Stat. Probab. Lett. 2010, 80: 206-214.
estimateBayesianDivergence
## Load a dataset of simulated read counts.
## This is a list of GRanges objects
data("rcounts", package = "MethylIT")
## The first GRanges object is the referenc sample
rcounts$ref
## For the safe of time, we will use just the first 500 cytosine positions
rc <- lapply(rcounts, function(x) x[ 1:500 ])
rc$C1
## The are three control and three treat samples
names(rc)
## The estimation of information divergences includes both available
## divergences: Hellinger and J divergences.
hd <- estimateDivergence(
ref = rc$ref,
indiv = rc[ -1 ],
Bayesian = TRUE,
num.cores = 6L,
percentile = 1,
JD = TRUE,
verbose = FALSE)
hd
## Keep in mind that Hellinger and J divergences are, in general,
## correlated
cor.test(x = hd$T1$hdiv, y = hd$T1$jdiv, method = 'kendall')
cor.test(x = hd$C1$hdiv, y = hd$C1$jdiv, method = 'pearson')
## Next, using a data set from the example for function
## 'uniqueGRfilterByCov' and same filtering conditions.
## The reference sample:
strands <- c("+","-","+","-", "+","-","+","+","+","+","+")
pos <- c(10,11,11,12,13,13,14,15,16,17,18)
x <- data.frame(chr = 'chr1', start = pos, end = pos,
mC = c(2,3,2,5,10,7,9,11,4,10,7),
uC = c(2,30,20,4,8,0,10,3,0,8,1),
strand = strands)
x <- makeGRangesFromDataFrame(x, keep.extra.columns = TRUE)
## The treatment sample and the centroide of treatment group:
y <- data.frame(chr = 'chr1', start = 11:18, end = 11:18,
mC2 = c(4,1,2,1,4,5:7), uC2 = c(0,0,2:7),
strand = c("+","-","-","+","+","+","+","+"))
y <- makeGRangesFromDataFrame(y, keep.extra.columns = TRUE)
y_centroid <- data.frame(
chr = 'chr1',
start = pos, end = pos,
mC2 = c(8,7,6,7,5,8,1:5), uC2 = 0:10,
strand = c("+","-","+","-", "+","-","+","+","+","+","+"))
y_centroid <- makeGRangesFromDataFrame(y_centroid,
keep.extra.columns = TRUE)
## Estimation of the divergences whitout applying Bayesian correction of
## the methylation levels:
estimateDivergence(ref = x,
indiv = y,
and.min.cov = FALSE,
min.coverage = c(1, 8),
ignore.strand = FALSE,
y.centroid = y_centroid,
min.percentile = FALSE,
percentile = 1,
verbose = FALSE)
## Estimation of the divergences applying Bayesian correction.
## Without Bayesian correction of the methylation levels, the Hellinger
## divergences values can be over estimated. The correction is introduced
## based on the assumption that the methylation levels follow Beta
## probability distribution.
estimateDivergence(ref = x,
indiv = y,
Bayesian = TRUE,
and.min.cov = FALSE,
min.coverage = c(1, 8),
ignore.strand = FALSE,
y.centroid = y_centroid,
min.percentile = FALSE,
percentile = 1,
verbose = FALSE)
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