DeepRCI: predicting RNA-chromatin interactions via deep learning with multi-omics data

Background: Chromatin-associated RNA (caRNA) acts as a ubiquitous epigenetic layer in eukaryotes, and has been reported to be essential in various biological processes, including gene transcription, chromatin remodeling and cellular differentiation. Recently, numerous experimental techniques have been developed to characterize genome-wide RNA-chromatin interactions to understand their underlying biological functions. However, these experimental methods are generally expensive, time-consuming, and limited in identifying all potential sites, while most of the existing computational methods are restricted to detecting only specific types of RNAs interacting with chromatin.Methods: Here, we propose a highly interpretable computational framework, named DeepRCI, to identify the interactions between various types of RNAs and chromatin. In this framework, we introduce a novel deep learning component called variformer and integrate multi-omics data to capture intrinsic genomic features at both RNA and DNA levels.Results: Extensive experiments demonstrate that DeepRCI can detect RNA-chromatin interactions more accurately when compared to the state-of-the-art baseline prediction methods. Furthermore, the sequence features extracted by DeepRCI can be well matched to known critical gene regulatory components, indicating that our model can provide useful biological insights into understanding the underlying mechanisms of RNA-chromatin interactions. In addition, based on the prediction results, we further delineate the relationships between RNA-chromatin interactions and cellular functions, including gene expression and the modulation of cell states.Conclusions: In summary, DeepRCI can serve as a useful tool for characterizing RNA-chromatin interactions and studying the underlying gene regulatory code.