Measures of hydroxymethylation

Hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) methylation is known to be a possible epigenetic mark impacting genome stability. In this paper, we address the existing 5hmC measure $\Delta \beta$ and discuss its properties both analytically and empirically on real data. Then we introduce several alternative hydroxymethylation measures and compare their properties with those of $\Delta \beta$. All results will be illustrated by means of real data analyses.