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Wang Y, Zheng P, Cheng YC, Wang Z, Aravkin A. Gene regulatory network inference with covariance dynamics. Math Biosci 2024:109284. [PMID: 39168402 DOI: 10.1016/j.mbs.2024.109284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2024] [Revised: 06/25/2024] [Accepted: 08/16/2024] [Indexed: 08/23/2024]
Abstract
Determining gene regulatory network (GRN) structure is a central problem in biology, with a variety of inference methods available for different types of data. For a widely prevalent and challenging use case, namely single-cell gene expression data measured after intervention at multiple time points with unknown joint distributions, there is only one known specifically developed method, which does not fully utilize the rich information contained in this data type. We develop an inference method for the GRN in this case, netWork infErence by covariaNce DYnamics, dubbed WENDY. The core idea of WENDY is to model the dynamics of the covariance matrix, and solve this dynamics as an optimization problem to determine the regulatory relationships. To evaluate its effectiveness, we compare WENDY with other inference methods using synthetic data and experimental data. Our results demonstrate that WENDY performs well across different data sets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yue Wang
- Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics and Department of Statistics, Columbia University, NewYork, 10027, NY, USA.
| | - Peng Zheng
- Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Seattle, 98195, WA, USA; Department of Health Metrics Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195, WA, USA
| | - Yu-Chen Cheng
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, 02215, MA, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, 02115, MA, USA; Center for Cancer Evolution, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, 02215, MA, USA; Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, MA, USA
| | - Zikun Wang
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Rockefeller University, NewYork, 10065, NY, USA
| | - Aleksandr Aravkin
- Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195, WA, USA
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Hu W, Li Y, Wu Y, Guan L, Li M. A deep learning model for DNA enhancer prediction based on nucleotide position aware feature encoding. iScience 2024; 27:110030. [PMID: 38868182 PMCID: PMC11167433 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2024] [Revised: 04/23/2024] [Accepted: 05/16/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Enhancers, genomic DNA elements, regulate neighboring gene expression crucial for biological processes like cell differentiation and stress response. However, current machine learning methods for predicting DNA enhancers often underutilize hidden features in gene sequences, limiting model accuracy. Hence, this article proposes the PDCNN model, a deep learning-based enhancer prediction method. PDCNN extracts statistical nucleotide representations from gene sequences, discerning positional distribution information of nucleotides in modifier-like DNA sequences. With a convolutional neural network structure, PDCNN employs dual convolutional and fully connected layers. The cross-entropy loss function iteratively updates using a gradient descent algorithm, enhancing prediction accuracy. Model parameters are fine-tuned to select optimal combinations for training, achieving over 95% accuracy. Comparative analysis with traditional methods and existing models demonstrates PDCNN's robust feature extraction capability. It outperforms advanced machine learning methods in identifying DNA enhancers, presenting an effective method with broad implications for genomics, biology, and medical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenxing Hu
- College of Physics and Electronic Information, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi, China
| | - Yelin Li
- College of Physics and Electronic Information, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi, China
| | - Yan Wu
- College of Physics and Electronic Information, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi, China
| | - Lixin Guan
- College of Physics and Electronic Information, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi, China
| | - Mengshan Li
- College of Physics and Electronic Information, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi, China
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Park SJ, Nakai K. A computational approach for deciphering the interactions between proximal and distal gene regulators in GC B-cell response. NAR Genom Bioinform 2024; 6:lqae050. [PMID: 38711859 PMCID: PMC11071120 DOI: 10.1093/nargab/lqae050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2023] [Revised: 04/15/2024] [Accepted: 04/27/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Delineating the intricate interplay between promoter-proximal and -distal regulators is crucial for understanding the function of transcriptional mediator complexes implicated in the regulation of gene expression. The present study aimed to develop a computational method for accurately modeling the spatial proximal and distal regulatory interactions. Our method combined regression-based models to identify key regulators through gene expression prediction and a graph-embedding approach to detect coregulated genes. This approach enabled a detailed investigation of the gene regulatory mechanisms for germinal center B cells, accompanied by dramatic rearrangements of the genome structure. We found that while the promoter-proximal regulatory elements were the principal regulators of gene expression, the distal regulators fine-tuned transcription. Moreover, our approach unveiled the presence of modular regulators, such as cofactors and proximal/distal transcription factors, which were co-expressed with their target genes. Some of these modules exhibited abnormal expression patterns in lymphoma. These findings suggest that the dysregulation of interactions between transcriptional and architectural factors is associated with chromatin reorganization failure, which may increase the risk of malignancy. Therefore, our computational approach helps decipher the transcriptional cis-regulatory code spatially interacting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sung-Joon Park
- Human Genome Center, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan
| | - Kenta Nakai
- Human Genome Center, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan
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Pan Y, Chiu TP, Zhou L, Chan P, Kuo TT, Battaglin F, Soni S, Jayachandran P, Li JJ, Lenz HJ, Mumenthaler SM, Rohs R, Torres ER, Kay SA. Targeting circadian transcriptional programs in triple negative breast cancer through a cis-regulatory mechanism. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.26.590360. [PMID: 38746115 PMCID: PMC11092448 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.26.590360] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/16/2024]
Abstract
Circadian clock genes are emerging targets in many types of cancer, but their mechanistic contributions to tumor progression are still largely unknown. This makes it challenging to stratify patient populations and develop corresponding treatments. In this work, we show that in breast cancer, the disrupted expression of circadian genes has the potential to serve as biomarkers. We also show that the master circadian transcription factors (TFs) BMAL1 and CLOCK are required for the proliferation of metastatic mesenchymal stem-like (mMSL) triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. Using currently available small molecule modulators, we found that a stabilizer of cryptochrome 2 (CRY2), the direct repressor of BMAL1 and CLOCK transcriptional activity, synergizes with inhibitors of proteasome, which is required for BMAL1 and CLOCK function, to repress a transcriptional program comprising circadian cycling genes in mMSL TNBC cells. Omics analyses on drug-treated cells implied that this repression of transcription is mediated by the transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) features in the cis-regulatory elements (CRE) of clock-controlled genes. Through a massive parallel reporter assay, we defined a set of CRE features that are potentially repressed by the specific drug combination. The identification of cis -element enrichment may serve as a new way of defining and targeting tumor types through the modulation of cis -regulatory programs, and ultimately provide a new paradigm of therapy design for cancer types with unclear drivers like TNBC.
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Riedling O, Walker AS, Rokas A. Predicting fungal secondary metabolite activity from biosynthetic gene cluster data using machine learning. Microbiol Spectr 2024; 12:e0340023. [PMID: 38193680 PMCID: PMC10846162 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.03400-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Fungal secondary metabolites (SMs) contribute to the diversity of fungal ecological communities, niches, and lifestyles. Many fungal SMs have one or more medically and industrially important activities (e.g., antifungal, antibacterial, and antitumor). The genes necessary for fungal SM biosynthesis are typically located right next to each other in the genome and are known as biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). However, whether fungal SM bioactivity can be predicted from specific attributes of genes in BGCs remains an open question. We adapted machine learning models that predicted SM bioactivity from bacterial BGC data with accuracies as high as 80% to fungal BGC data. We trained our models to predict the antibacterial, antifungal, and cytotoxic/antitumor bioactivity of fungal SMs on two data sets: (i) fungal BGCs (data set comprised of 314 BGCs) and (ii) fungal (314 BGCs) and bacterial BGCs (1,003 BGCs). We found that models trained on fungal BGCs had balanced accuracies between 51% and 68%, whereas training on bacterial and fungal BGCs had balanced accuracies between 56% and 68%. The low prediction accuracy of fungal SM bioactivities likely stems from the small size of the data set; this lack of data, coupled with our finding that including bacterial BGC data in the training data did not substantially change accuracies currently limits the application of machine learning approaches to fungal SM studies. With >15,000 characterized fungal SMs, millions of putative BGCs in fungal genomes, and increased demand for novel drugs, efforts that systematically link fungal SM bioactivity to BGCs are urgently needed.IMPORTANCEFungi are key sources of natural products and iconic drugs, including penicillin and statins. DNA sequencing has revealed that there are likely millions of biosynthetic pathways in fungal genomes, but the chemical structures and bioactivities of >99% of natural products produced by these pathways remain unknown. We used artificial intelligence to predict the bioactivities of diverse fungal biosynthetic pathways. We found that the accuracies of our predictions were generally low, between 51% and 68%, likely because the natural products and bioactivities of only very few fungal pathways are known. With >15,000 characterized fungal natural products, millions of putative biosynthetic pathways present in fungal genomes, and increased demand for novel drugs, our study suggests that there is an urgent need for efforts that systematically identify fungal biosynthetic pathways, their natural products, and their bioactivities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivia Riedling
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Allison S. Walker
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Antonis Rokas
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
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Wang Q, Zhang J, Liu Z, Duan Y, Li C. Integrative approaches based on genomic techniques in the functional studies on enhancers. Brief Bioinform 2023; 25:bbad442. [PMID: 38048082 PMCID: PMC10694556 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2023] [Revised: 10/22/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
With the development of sequencing technology and the dramatic drop in sequencing cost, the functions of noncoding genes are being characterized in a wide variety of fields (e.g. biomedicine). Enhancers are noncoding DNA elements with vital transcription regulation functions. Tens of thousands of enhancers have been identified in the human genome; however, the location, function, target genes and regulatory mechanisms of most enhancers have not been elucidated thus far. As high-throughput sequencing techniques have leapt forwards, omics approaches have been extensively employed in enhancer research. Multidimensional genomic data integration enables the full exploration of the data and provides novel perspectives for screening, identification and characterization of the function and regulatory mechanisms of unknown enhancers. However, multidimensional genomic data are still difficult to integrate genome wide due to complex varieties, massive amounts, high rarity, etc. To facilitate the appropriate methods for studying enhancers with high efficacy, we delineate the principles, data processing modes and progress of various omics approaches to study enhancers and summarize the applications of traditional machine learning and deep learning in multi-omics integration in the enhancer field. In addition, the challenges encountered during the integration of multiple omics data are addressed. Overall, this review provides a comprehensive foundation for enhancer analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qilin Wang
- School of Engineering Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
- School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
| | - Junyou Zhang
- School of Engineering Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
- School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
| | - Zhaoshuo Liu
- School of Engineering Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
- School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
| | - Yingying Duan
- School of Engineering Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
- School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
| | - Chunyan Li
- School of Engineering Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
- School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
- Key Laboratory of Big Data-Based Precision Medicine (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Big Data-Based Precision Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
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