Design and analysis of ChIP-seq experiments for DNA-binding proteins

Recent progress in massively parallel sequencing platforms has allowed for genome-wide measurements of DNA-associated proteins using a combination of chromatin immunoprecipitation and sequencing (ChIP-seq). While a variety of methods exist for analysis of the established microarray alternative (ChIP-chip), few approaches have been described for processing ChIP-seq data. To fill this gap, we propose an analysis pipeline specifically designed to detect protein binding positions with high accuracy. Using three separate datasets, we illustrate new methods for improving tag alignment and correcting for background signals. We also compare sensitivity and spatial precision of several novel and previously described binding detection algorithms. Finally, we analyze the relationship between the depth of sequencing and characteristics of the detected binding positions, and provide a method for estimating the sequencing depth necessary for a desired coverage of protein binding sites.