Viewing Cistrome data using HiGlass

The cistrome database contains a set of genome-wide measures. These are typically displayed in a genome browser using individual "tracks". The current implementation allows users to select files in the database and then go to an external viewer like UCSC to view them.

Using HiGlass, individual files can be directly displayed within the page that will host them. The example below shows four bigWig files from the cistrome database. Each file is displayed as a separate "track".

If we try to display too many individual bigWig files, however, the performance will suffer due to the many files that need to be opened and read.

A better solution is to consolidate the data into a single "multivec" file that can be queried once to obtain values across hundreds of datasets. The example below contains a heatmap made up of 256 individual samples. It also contains a track showing sequence conservation as a well as epigenetic states

By incorporating HiGlass, Cistrome can take advantage of more advanced HiGlass features such as detail / overview views.

The view on the left is a "detail" view showing data a high zoom level where individual promoters can be identified. The view on the right contains an "overview" at a lower zoom level indicating the context for the detail view.