Measures of hydroxymethylation

TL;DR

This paper evaluates existing and introduces new measures of hydroxymethylation, analyzing their properties both theoretically and empirically using real data to improve understanding of 5hmC as an epigenetic mark.

Contribution

The paper provides a critical analysis of the existing 5hmC measure $ ext{ extDelta} eta$ and proposes several alternative measures with comparative evaluations.

Findings

$ ext{ extDelta} eta$ has specific analytical properties analyzed

New hydroxymethylation measures show different behaviors in data

Empirical comparisons highlight strengths and weaknesses of each measure

Abstract

Hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) methylation is known to be a possible epigenetic mark impacting genome stability. In this paper, we address the existing 5hmC measure $\Delta \beta$ and discuss its properties both analytically and empirically on real data. Then we introduce several alternative hydroxymethylation measures and compare their properties with those of $\Delta \beta$. All results will be illustrated by means of real data analyses.