Cited by 108Genomics and Chromatin DynamicsGene Regulatory Network AnalysisGenomics and Phylogenetic Studies

Hold out the genome: a roadmap to solving the cis-regulatory code

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de Boer, Carl G., Taipale, Jussi·2024·Nature

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Gene expression is regulated by transcription factors that work together to read cis-regulatory DNA sequences. The 'cis-regulatory code' - how cells interpret DNA sequences to determine when, where and how much genes should be expressed - has proven to be exceedingly complex. Recently, advances in the scale and resolution of functional genomics assays and machine learning have enabled substantial progress towards deciphering this code. However, the cis-regulatory code will probably never be solved if models are trained only on genomic sequences; regions of homology can easily lead to overestimation of predictive performance, and our genome is too short and has insufficient sequence diversity to learn all relevant parameters. Fortunately, randomly synthesized DNA sequences enable testing a far larger sequence space than exists in our genomes, and designed DNA sequences enable targeted queries to maximally improve the models. As the same biochemical principles are used to interpret DNA regardless of its source, models trained on these synthetic data can predict genomic activity, often better than genome-trained models. Here we provide an outlook on the field, and propose a roadmap towards solving the cis-regulatory code by a combination of machine learning and massively parallel assays using synthetic DNA.

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Crossref · 10.1038/s41586-023-06661-w

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  • The natural genome contains only few instances of many TF combinations and binding site arrangements and is statistically underpowered to learn the rules by which it is decoded.

    “it has been argued that the natural genome contains only few instances of many TF combinations and binding site arrangements, and it is in a statistical sense underpowered to “learn the rules by which it is decoded.”28,29”
  • The performance of our models on sequence design and genome interpretation tasks highlights the importance of pairwise TF interactions in achieving regulatory specificity and illustrates the benefits of working with non-natural sequences for learning the rules of gene regulation.

    “The performance of our models on sequence design and genome interpretation tasks highlights the importance of pairwise TF interactions in achieving regulatory specificity and illustrates the benefits of working with non-natural sequences for learning the rules of gene regulation.29”

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Authors
de Boer, C. G., & Taipale, J.
Affiliations
University of Helsinki (FI)
Corresponding author
Taipale, Jussi
Venue
Nature
Published
2023-12-13
Volume
625
Issue
7993
Pages
41-50
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W4389670750
Cited by
107
References
175
Citations by year
2026: 34 · 2025: 40 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 4
FWCI
2.85
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Apollo (cc-by)
Funders
  • Stem Cell Network (ECR-C4R1-7)
  • Michael Smith Health Research BC
  • Medical Research Council (MR/V000500/1)
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/V00736X/1)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gene Regulatory Network Analysis
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
Keywords
transcription factor binding, gene expression regulation, synthetic DNA sequences
MeSH terms
Machine Learning, DNA, Models, Genetic, Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid, Transcription Factors, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Genomics

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