GraphLooper: predicting chromatin loops based on hierarchical multi-view graph pooling method.

Abstract

Chromatin loops serve as fundamental functional units of three-dimensional genome organization, playing pivotal roles in regulating gene expression and maintaining genomic spatial organization. Accurate identification of these fine-scale structures is crucial for advancing our understanding of cellular biological processes and the mechanisms underlying disease. However, due to the inherent complexity and dynamic of chromatin interactions, existing methods often fail to adequately characterize and capture multi-dimensional features. To address these limitations, we introduce GraphLooper, a novel framework using hierarchical multi-view graph pooling to enhance training and inference on large-scale data. GraphLooper transforms Hi-C data into a graph-structured representation, integrating multi-dimensional epigenomic features to construct a robust chromatin interaction model. Employing a hierarchical multi-view graph pooling mechanism, it effectively aggregates multi-scale features, enhancing representation learning. Evaluations across diverse cell lines demonstrate that GraphLooper outperforms state-of-the-art methods in prediction accuracy and generalization, particularly in capturing long-range chromatin interactions critical for precise spatial gene regulation.