ENCODE Hi-C Pipeline: FASTQ to Contact Matrices and Loops

When to Use

• User wants to run a Hi-C processing pipeline from FASTQ to contact matrices and loop calls
• User asks about "Hi-C pipeline", "contact matrix", "loop calling", "Juicer", "HiCCUPS", or "TAD detection"
• User needs to process Hi-C data for 3D genome structure analysis
• Example queries: "process my Hi-C FASTQs", "generate contact matrices from Hi-C", "call chromatin loops with HiCCUPS"

Execute the ENCODE Hi-C pipeline for chromatin conformation capture data, producing multi-resolution contact matrices, loop calls, and compartment annotations.

Pipeline Overview

FASTQ -> Trim -> BWA (per-mate) -> pairtools parse -> dedup -> .pairs
                                                                 |
                                                    +------------+------------+
                                                    |                         |
                                              Juicer pre -> .hic        cooler -> .mcool
                                                    |                         |
                                              HiCCUPS loops              Compartments

ENCODE Repository

• GitHub:

  ENCODE-DCC/hic-pipeline

• Container:

  encodedcc/hic-pipeline

• WDL: Available for Cromwell execution
• This skill: Nextflow DSL2 reimplementation for portability

Core Tools and Versions

Key Literature

1. Rao et al. 2014 - "A 3D Map of the Human Genome at Kilobase Resolution Reveals Principles of Chromatin Looping" (Cell, ~5,000 citations) DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.11.021

2. Lieberman-Aiden et al. 2009 - "Comprehensive Mapping of Long-Range Interactions Reveals Folding Principles of the Human Genome" (Science, ~6,000 citations) DOI: 10.1126/science.1181369

3. Durand et al. 2016 - "Juicer Provides a One-Click System for Analyzing Loop-Resolution Hi-C Experiments" (Cell Systems, ~2,000 citations) DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2016.07.002

4. Abdennur & Mirny 2020 - "Cooler: scalable storage for Hi-C data and other genomically labeled arrays" (Bioinformatics) DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btz540

5. Amemiya et al. 2019 - "The ENCODE Blacklist" (Scientific Reports, ~1,372 citations) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-45839-z

Execution

Quick Start (Local)

nextflow run main.nf \
    -profile local \
    --reads '/data/fastq/*_R{1,2}.fastq.gz' \
    --bwa_index '/ref/bwa_index/genome.fa' \
    --chrom_sizes '/ref/hg38.chrom.sizes' \
    --restriction_site 'GATC' \
    --outdir results/ \
    -resume

SLURM HPC

nextflow run main.nf \
    -profile slurm \
    --reads '/data/fastq/*_R{1,2}.fastq.gz' \
    --bwa_index '/ref/bwa_index/genome.fa' \
    --chrom_sizes '/ref/hg38.chrom.sizes' \
    --restriction_site 'GATC' \
    --outdir results/ \
    -resume

Cloud (GCP / AWS)

nextflow run main.nf \
    -profile gcp \
    --reads 'gs://bucket/fastq/*_R{1,2}.fastq.gz' \
    --bwa_index 'gs://bucket/ref/genome.fa' \
    --chrom_sizes 'gs://bucket/ref/hg38.chrom.sizes' \
    --restriction_site 'GATC' \
    --outdir 'gs://bucket/results/' \
    -resume

Resource Requirements

Pipeline Parameters

--reads

--bwa_index

--chrom_sizes

--restriction_site

GATC

--outdir

./results

--resolutions

1000,5000,10000,25000,50000,100000,250000,500000,1000000

--min_mapq

30

--assembly

hg38

Output Files

results/
  fastqc/                         # Raw read quality
  alignment/
    {sample}.R1.bam               # Per-mate alignments
    {sample}.R2.bam
  pairs/
    {sample}.pairs.gz             # Classified, deduplicated pairs
    {sample}.dedup_stats.txt      # Duplication metrics
    {sample}.pair_stats.txt       # Pair type classification
  matrices/
    {sample}.hic                  # Juicer .hic file (primary output)
    {sample}.mcool                # Cooler multi-resolution matrix
  loops/
    {sample}.hiccups_loops.bedpe  # Called loops (HiCCUPS)
  qc/
    {sample}.contact_stats.txt    # Contact statistics
  multiqc/
    multiqc_report.html

.hic File Format

The .hic format (Juicer) stores multi-resolution contact matrices with normalization vectors. Can be visualized in Juicebox and loaded by

hic-straw

.mcool File Format

The .mcool format (cooler) is an HDF5-based multi-resolution contact matrix. Widely supported by

cooler

cooltools

HiGlass

FAN-C

QC Thresholds (ENCODE Standards)

Resolution vs Depth Requirements

Pair Classification

pairtools classifies read pairs into categories:

Only UU pairs (and optionally UR) are used for contact matrices.

Critical Pitfalls

Restriction Enzyme Choice

The restriction enzyme determines fragment size and resolution:

• MboI/DpnII (GATC): 4-cutter, ~256 bp average fragment -- higher resolution
• HindIII (AAGCTT): 6-cutter, ~4 kb average fragment -- lower resolution
• Arima (proprietary): Two enzymes, ~160 bp average -- highest resolution
• Always verify which enzyme was used before processing

Normalization Method

Different normalization methods yield different results:

• KR (Knight-Ruiz): Default in Juicer, balanced normalization
• ICE (Imakaev et al.): Used by cooler/cooltools, iterative correction
• VC (Vanilla Coverage): Simple coverage normalization
• ENCODE standard: KR normalization. Always document which was used.

Resolution Depends on Depth

Do not call features at resolutions unsupported by sequencing depth:

• Calling 1 kb loops from 100M contacts will produce noise
• Check the Juicer resolution QC to determine achievable resolution
• Loop calling (HiCCUPS) typically requires 5-10 kb resolution

Ligation Artifacts

Same-strand pairs (WW) indicate self-ligation or undigested fragments:

• High WW fraction (>30%) suggests poor digestion
• Monitor pair type distribution as a QC metric
• Re-ligation distance plots should show enrichment at restriction sites

Provenance Integration

After pipeline completion, log all outputs:

encode_log_derived_file(
    file_path="/results/matrices/sample1.hic",
    source_accessions=["ENCSR...", "ENCFF..."],
    description="Hi-C contact matrix from ENCODE Hi-C pipeline",
    file_type="hic",
    tool_used="BWA 0.7.17 + pairtools 1.0.3 + Juicer 2.20.00",
    parameters="MboI digestion, KR normalization, resolutions 1kb-1Mb"
)

Reference Files

Detailed step-by-step documentation is provided in the

references/

1. 01-qc-trimming.md

   -- Read QC and adapter trimming

2. 02-alignment.md

   -- BWA per-mate alignment strategy

3. 03-pair-processing.md

   -- pairtools parse, sort, and dedup

4. 04-matrix-generation.md

   -- Juicer .hic and cooler .mcool generation

5. 05-loop-calling.md

   -- HiCCUPS loop detection and QC

Walkthrough: Processing ENCODE Hi-C from FASTQ to Contact Maps and Loops

Goal: Process raw Hi-C FASTQ files through the ENCODE pipeline to generate contact matrices, TAD calls, and chromatin loop predictions. Context: Hi-C captures 3D chromatin organization. The pipeline uses BWA for chimeric read alignment, pairtools for pair processing, and Juicer/HiCCUPS for loop calling.

Step 1: Find Hi-C experiment

encode_get_experiment(accession="ENCSR000AKA")

Expected output:

{
  "accession": "ENCSR000AKA",
  "assay_title": "Hi-C",
  "biosample_summary": "GM12878",
  "replicates": 2,
  "status": "released"
}

Step 2: List FASTQ files

encode_list_files(accession="ENCSR000AKA", file_format="fastq")

Expected output:

{
  "files": [
    {"accession": "ENCFF500HI1", "output_type": "reads", "paired_end": "1", "file_size_mb": 35000},
    {"accession": "ENCFF501HI2", "output_type": "reads", "paired_end": "2", "file_size_mb": 36000}
  ]
}

Interpretation: Hi-C paired-end reads represent chimeric ligation junctions. Each read pair captures a 3D contact.

Step 3: Run the Hi-C pipeline

nextflow run pipeline-hic/main.nf \
  --fastq_r1 ENCFF500HI1.fastq.gz \
  --fastq_r2 ENCFF501HI2.fastq.gz \
  --genome GRCh38 \
  --restriction_enzyme DpnII \
  --resolution 5000,10000,25000 \
  -profile docker

Key pipeline steps:

1. BWA-MEM alignment (chimeric read handling)
2. pairtools parse (extract valid pairs)
3. pairtools dedup (remove PCR duplicates)
4. Contact matrix generation (.hic format)
5. TAD calling (directionality index or insulation score)
6. Loop calling (HiCCUPS at 5kb/10kb/25kb resolution)

Step 4: Validate output quality

Step 5: Identify significant loops

Download loop calls for downstream analysis:

encode_list_files(accession="ENCSR000AKA", file_format="bedpe", assembly="GRCh38")

Integration with downstream skills

• Loop calls (BEDPE) feed into -> hic-aggregation for cross-tissue loop catalog
• TAD boundaries feed into -> regulatory-elements for domain-level regulation
• Loop anchors feed into -> peak-annotation for enhancer-promoter assignment
• Contact data integrates with -> visualization-workflow for 3D genome display
• Pipeline provenance logged by -> data-provenance

Code Examples

1. Find Hi-C data for 3D genome analysis

encode_search_experiments(
  assay_title="Hi-C",
  organ="heart"
)

Expected output:

{
  "total": 4,
  "experiments": [
    {
      "accession": "ENCSR654HRT",
      "assay_title": "Hi-C",
      "biosample_summary": "heart left ventricle tissue male adult (51 years)",
      "status": "released"
    }
  ]
}

2. Get experiment details for pipeline configuration

encode_get_experiment(accession="ENCSR654HRT")

Expected output:

{
  "accession": "ENCSR654HRT",
  "assay_title": "Hi-C",
  "replicates": 2,
  "biosample_summary": "heart left ventricle tissue male adult (51 years)",
  "files_count": 18,
  "assembly": "GRCh38",
  "audit": {"ERROR": 0, "WARNING": 1}
}

Integration

Related Skills

• pipeline-guide

  -- Parent skill with compute resource assessment and cloud setup

• hic-aggregation

  -- Aggregate Hi-C loops across samples/tissues

• quality-assessment

  -- Evaluate pipeline output quality metrics

• data-provenance

  -- Track all pipeline inputs, outputs, and parameters

• download-encode

  -- Download ENCODE Hi-C FASTQ files for pipeline input

• publication-trust

  -- Verify literature claims backing analytical decisions

Presenting Results

When reporting Hi-C pipeline results:

• Valid pair count: Report total valid pairs (UU + optionally UR) and the fraction of all read pairs that are valid contacts
• Cis/trans ratio: Report the cis/trans contact ratio (>1.5 pass) and long-range cis fraction (>20kb, >40% expected). These are the primary Hi-C quality indicators
• Contact matrix resolution: Report the achievable resolution based on sequencing depth (e.g., "500M valid pairs supports 5kb resolution") and list all resolutions generated
• Loop counts: Report HiCCUPS loop count at each resolution tested and note the resolution with the most loops called
• Matrix paths: Provide paths to the .hic file (Juicebox-compatible) and .mcool file (cooler/HiGlass-compatible)
• Key QC metrics: Present library complexity (unique/total >0.7), WW pair fraction (<30%), and pair classification distribution in a summary table
• Normalization: Note which normalization was applied (KR default for Juicer)
• Next steps: Suggest

  hic-aggregation

  for cross-sample loop catalogs, or

  visualization-workflow

  for Juicebox/HiGlass session setup

For the request: "$ARGUMENTS"