bindingsitefinder

name: bioconductor-bindingsitefinderdescription: Precise knowledge on the binding sites of an RNA-binding protein (RBP) is key to understand (post-) transcriptional regulatory processes. Here we present a workflow that describes how exact binding sites can be defined from iCLIP data. The package provides functions for binding site definition and result visualization. For details please see the vignette.when_to_use: Use when: Definition of binding sites from iCLIP signal. Not for: Requires R ≥ 4.2 and Bioconductor ≥ 3.16user-invocable: false

BindingSiteFinder

Workflows

Standard Workflow

library(BindingSiteFinder)
library(txdbmaker)
library(rtracklayer)

# 1. Import crosslink sites
csFile <- system.file("extdata", "PureCLIP_crosslink_sites_examples.bed", package="BindingSiteFinder")
cs <- rtracklayer::import(con = csFile, format = "BED")

# 2. Create metadata table and construct BSFDataSet
files <- system.file("extdata", package="BindingSiteFinder")
clipFilesP <- list.files(files, pattern = "plus.bw$", full.names = TRUE)
clipFilesM <- list.files(files, pattern = "minus.bw$", full.names = TRUE)
meta <- data.frame(
  id = 1:4,
  condition = factor(rep("WT", 4)),
  clPlus = clipFilesP,
  clMinus = clipFilesM
)
bds <- BSFDataSetFromBigWig(ranges = cs, meta = meta, silent = TRUE)

# 3. Build gene and transcript region annotations
annoDb <- txdbmaker::makeTxDbFromGFF(file = "gencode_v37_annotation.gff3", format = "gff3")
gns <- genes(annoDb)
regions <- GRangesList(
  CDS = cds(annoDb),
  Intron = unlist(intronsByTranscript(annoDb)),
  UTR3 = unlist(threeUTRsByTranscript(annoDb)),
  UTR5 = unlist(fiveUTRsByTranscript(annoDb))
)

# 4. Run BSFind wrapper
bdsOut <- BSFind(
  object = bds,
  anno.genes = gns,
  anno.transcriptRegionList = regions,
  est.subsetChromosome = "chr22",
  veryQuiet = TRUE
)

# 5. Export results
exportToBED(bdsOut, con = "./myBindingSites.bed")

Input/Output Note: Inputs a BSFDataSet and genomic annotations; outputs a refined BSFDataSet with defined binding sites and exports them to a BED file.

Differential Binding Analysis

library(BindingSiteFinder)
library(txdbmaker)

# 1. Load Gene Annotations and Transcript Regions
annoDb <- txdbmaker::makeTxDbFromGFF(file = "gencode_v37_annotation.gff3", format = "gff3")
gns <- genes(annoDb)
regions <- GRangesList(
  CDS = cds(annoDb),
  Intron = unlist(intronsByTranscript(annoDb)),
  UTR3 = unlist(threeUTRsByTranscript(annoDb)),
  UTR5 = unlist(fiveUTRsByTranscript(annoDb))
)

# 2. Define binding sites for a condition
bdsOut <- BSFind(
  object = bds, 
  anno.genes = gns, 
  anno.transcriptRegionList = regions, 
  est.subsetChromosome = "chr22"
)

Input/Output Note: Inputs a BSFDataSet and genomic annotations; outputs a BSFDataSet with defined binding sites prepared for downstream differential testing.

When to Use

• To define precise, equally sized RBP binding sites from genome-wide iCLIP coverage and peak calling results (e.g., PureCLIP crosslink sites).
• To filter, merge, and check reproducibility of crosslink sites across replicates using BSFind().
• To annotate binding sites with genomic features such as genes and transcript regions (CDS, Introns, UTRs) using genes(), cds(), and intronsByTranscript().

When NOT to Use

• For analyzing RNA-seq differential expression or splicing directly without iCLIP/CLIP-seq data (use DESeq2 or dexseq instead).
• For peak calling directly from BAM files (use peak callers like PureCLIP first, then import results into BindingSiteFinder).

Data Requirements

• Crosslink sites as a GRanges object (typically single-nucleotide wide, e.g., imported from PureCLIP BED files).
• Replicate-specific coverage data in strand-specific BigWig files (clPlus and clMinus).
• Gene annotations as a GRanges object and transcript regions as a GRangesList (e.g., CDS, Introns, 3' UTR, 5' UTR).

Key Parameters

• object: A BSFDataSet containing crosslink ranges and metadata.
• anno.genes: A GRanges object containing gene annotations.
• anno.transcriptRegionList: A GRangesList containing transcript region annotations.
• est.subsetChromosome ("chr22"): Character vector specifying which chromosome to use for estimating binding site width.
• veryQuiet (FALSE): Logical indicating whether to suppress progress messages.
• est.maxBsWidth (29): Numeric specifying the maximum binding site width to test during estimation.

Best Practices

• Pre-filter crosslink sites with low scores (e.g., removing the lowest 1% of PureCLIP scores) using pureClipGlobalFilterPlot() to assess the cutoff.
• Use estimateBsWidthPlot() to evaluate the optimal binding site width based on the signal-to-flank ratio.
• Enforce reproducibility across replicates by setting the nReps parameter (typically N-1 replicates) and verifying with reproducibilityScatterPlot().

Common Pitfalls

• Pitfall: Crosslink sites overlapping multiple genes causing inflated site counts. Fix: Set overlaps = "keepSingle" in BSFind() to reduce overlapping loci to a single instance.
• Pitfall: Low reproducibility across replicates due to library size differences. Fix: Use reproducibilityFilterPlot() to inspect and adjust the replicate-specific crosslink threshold.

Alternatives

• csaw for window-based differential binding analysis of ChIP-seq/ATAC-seq.
• macsr for peak calling on enrichment data.
• CLIPreg for integrating CLIP-seq with RNA-seq.

Citations

• Busch A, Brüggemann M, Ebersberger S, Zarnack K (2020). "iCLIP data analysis: A complete pipeline from sequencing reads to RBP binding sites." Methods, 178, 49-62. doi:10.1016/j.ymeth.2019.11.008.

References

• Homepage: https://bioconductor.org/packages/bindingsitefinder
• Vignette: https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/vignettes/bindingsitefinder/inst/doc/Definition_of_binding_sites_from_iCLIP_signal.html