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How can I make RSEM to align ChIPseq signal to the nearest gene?

I guess I can make a GTF by myself, and let the GTF associate genomic coordinates with genes. But assigning coordinates to closest genes is not a simple task. Overlapping gene regions can be problematic. Is there such a GTF available or is there an option to turn on/off with rsem-prepare-reference/rsem-calculate-expression/etc.?

Thanks in advance.

chip-seq next-gen sequencing alignment gene

What is your end goal with all of this?

Good question.

Assign ChIP signals to genes.

1 answer

Exactly what kind of signal? I presume you either want to assign peaks to genes (bedtools closest) or look at signal distributions near genes (see computeMatrix and plotHeatmap from deepTools).

Could be Pol2, Histone modifications, ATAC, etc.

For Pol2, usually we would be interested in +-5k from TSS; for histone modifications, ATAC, double strand breaks, ... , often you want to check the whole genome regardless how far/close the signal is to a gene.

Then you want computeMatrix from deepTools followed by either plotProfile or plotHeatmap.

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