Completing the ENCODE3 compendium yields accurate imputations across a variety of assays and human biosamples

Abstract

Recent efforts to describe the human epigenome have yielded thousands of epigenomic and transcriptomic datasets. However, due primarily to cost, the total number of such assays that can be performed is limited. Accordingly, we applied an imputation approach, Avocado, to a dataset of 3814 tracks of data derived from the ENCODE compendium, including measurements of chromatin accessibility, histone modification, transcription, and protein binding. Avocado shows significant improvements in imputing protein binding compared to the top models in the ENCODE-DREAM challenge. Additionally, we show that the Avocado model allows for efficient addition of new assays and biosamples to a pre-trained model.