Cited by 268Genetic Associations and EpidemiologyGenomics and Chromatin DynamicsRNA Research and Splicing

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Predicting RNA-seq coverage from DNA sequence as a unifying model of gene regulation

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Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Sequence-based machine-learning models trained on genomics data improve genetic variant interpretation by providing functional predictions describing their impact on the cis-regulatory code. However, current tools do not predict RNA-seq expression profiles because of modeling challenges. Here, we introduce Borzoi, a model that learns to predict cell-type-specific and tissue-specific RNA-seq coverage from DNA sequence. Using statistics derived from Borzoi's predicted coverage, we isolate and accurately score DNA variant effects across multiple layers of regulation, including transcription, splicing and polyadenylation. Evaluated on quantitative trait loci, Borzoi is competitive with and often outperforms state-of-the-art models trained on individual regulatory functions. By applying attribution methods to the derived statistics, we extract cis-regulatory motifs driving RNA expression and post-transcriptional regulation in normal tissues. The wide availability of RNA-seq data across species, conditions and assays profiling specific aspects of regulation emphasizes the potential of this approach to decipher the mapping from DNA sequence to regulatory function.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Borzoi is a sequence-based neural network that predicts cell-type- and tissue-specific RNA-seq coverage directly from DNA sequence, enabling variant-effect scoring across transcription, splicing and polyadenylation. It performs competitively with or better than state-of-the-art models on several QTL and regulatory-variant tasks while also recovering known cis-regulatory motifs.

Key findings

  • Borzoi predicts RNA-seq coverage with mean Pearson’s R = 0.74 per model replicate and 0.75 for the ensemble across human samples; gene-level Pearson’s R = 0.87, and residual across-track Pearson’s R = 0.58.
  • In five GTEx tissues, predicted versus measured tissue-specific expression fold-change correlations ranged from Spearman’s R = 0.52 to 0.75; TSS usage correlations were R = 0.85 pooled and R = 0.29–0.50 tissue-specific; APA correlations were R = 0.81 pooled and R = 0.23–0.41 tissue-specific.
  • Borzoi discriminated fine-mapped GTEx eQTLs from matched negatives with mean AUROC = 0.794 versus Enformer’s 0.747, and predicted eQTL effect sizes with mean Spearman’s R = 0.334 versus Enformer’s 0.227. For paQTLs, Borzoi achieved AUPRC = 0.64–0.74 and outperformed APARENT2; for sQTLs, Pangolin had a slight overall advantage (dAUPRC = 0.01) but Borzoi was better near splice junctions (dAUPRC = 0.02).
  • Motif discovery recovered known regulators such as SPI1/B and IRF4/8 in blood, HNF4A/G and HNF1A in liver, SOX9 and REST in brain, and MYOD1 and MEF2D in muscle; TF saliency differences correlated with measured TPM fold changes up to Spearman’s R = 0.77 for blood versus muscle.

Methods

  • Borzoi uses an Enformer-like convolution and self-attention core at 128 bp resolution, followed by U-net upsampling to predict coverage in 32 bp bins from 524 kb input sequences.
  • Training data included 867 human and 278 mouse ENCODE RNA-seq tracks, GTEx recount3 tracks, and Enformer assays such as CAGE, DNase-seq, ATAC-seq and ChIP–seq; four randomly initialized replicates were trained and ensembled.
  • The model was trained with species-specific heads, Poisson and multinomial loss components, and evaluated on held-out genomic partitions for Figs. 1–2; downstream variant analyses used attribution methods, TF-MoDISco/Tomtom motif discovery, and QTL classification/regression benchmarks.

Limitations

  • The paper states that Borzoi is far from perfect: most tissue-specific splicing events were not captured well, the model tended to predict average RNA-seq shape, and no sequence elements related to mRNA half-life were found in attributions.
  • The paper notes that sequencing bias, such as greater read density at transcript 3′ ends and GC bias, caused false positives when classifying alternatively used splice sites, and that attribution method choice matters, with window-shuffled ISM working better for 3′ UTRs.
  • The text also makes evident that Enformer comparisons are imperfect because of different data processing, test sets, bin resolution and CAGE strand splitting; eGene prioritization performed only marginally better than a TSS-distance baseline, and Borzoi and CADD had equal discriminative power for singletons versus common variation (mean AUROC = 0.55).

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Crossref · 10.1038/s41588-024-02053-6

Cites

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Figures

Fig. 1 Borzoi: a neural network for predicting RNA-seq coverage from sequence. a, The Borzoi neural network architecture consists of a number of convolution and downsampling layers followed by a stack of self-attention layers with relative positional encodings operating at 128 bp resolution, similar to the Enformer architecture. The output is then repeatedly upsampled and put through additional convolution layers with matched U-net connections to predict at 32 bp resolution. Connections with ‘+’ symbols represent a combination of the outputs of a previous layer with the inputs of a new layer through residual convolution. b, RNA-seq coverage prediction for the held-out test gene INSR (GTEx ‘adipose tissue’), obtained by averaging the predictions of four model replicates. The ‘squashed’ scale refers to the transformed scale applied to the training data (Methods). c, Bin-level Pearson correlation on held-out test data across coverage tracks when predicting CAGE, RNA-seq, DNase-seq or ChIP–seq (n = number of coverage tracks). Predictions were averaged across four model replicates. d, Gene-level Pearson correlation when comparing the predicted to measured sum of RNA coverage across exons (n = number of sequencing experiments). e, Gene-level Pearson correlation after quantile-normalizing the RNA coverage tracks and subtracting the average gene expression across tracks (n = number of sequencing experiments).
Fig. 1 Borzoi: a neural network for predicting RNA-seq coverage from sequence. a, The Borzoi neural network architecture consists of a number of convolution and downsampling layers followed by a stack of self-attention layers with relative positional encodings operating at 128 bp resolution, similar to the Enformer architecture. The output is then repeatedly upsampled and put through additional convolution layers with matched U-net connections to predict at 32 bp resolution. Connections with ‘+’ symbols represent a combination of the outputs of a previous layer with the inputs of a new layer through residual convolution. b, RNA-seq coverage prediction for the held-out test gene INSR (GTEx ‘adipose tissue’), obtained by averaging the predictions of four model replicates. The ‘squashed’ scale refers to the transformed scale applied to the training data (Methods). c, Bin-level Pearson correlation on held-out test data across coverage tracks when predicting CAGE, RNA-seq, DNase-seq or ChIP–seq (n = number of coverage tracks). Predictions were averaged across four model replicates. d, Gene-level Pearson correlation when comparing the predicted to measured sum of RNA coverage across exons (n = number of sequencing experiments). e, Gene-level Pearson correlation after quantile-normalizing the RNA coverage tracks and subtracting the average gene expression across tracks (n = number of sequencing experiments).CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Fig. 2 Predicting tissue-specific patterns of RNA-seq coverage in normal tissues. a, Example of tissue-specific gene expression predictions using Borzoi in five GTEx tissues for the blood-specific gene ADGRE1. The predicted and measured coverage of each RNA-seq experiment is aggregated in the bins that overlap exons (blue shaded regions; ‘max’ and ‘sum’ indicate maximum and total coverage). Exon annotations are shown below each coverage track (GENCODE v.41). b, Comparison of predicted and measured fold change between the aggregated coverage in a given tissue and the average coverage of the four other tissues for held-out test genes (n = 1,940). Blue and red dots represent replicate and ensemble model performance, respectively. Bar height represents average correlation. Inset, predictions for blood (color bar indicates Gaussian kernel density estimate). c, Example of alternative TSS isoform predictions for gene SGK1. TSS usage is estimated as a coverage ratio between bins overlapping each alternative start site (the ratio is annotated above each track). d, Comparison of predicted and measured TSS coverage ratio fold change, calculated between the coverage ratios (COVR) of a given tissue and the average coverage ratio of the remaining four tissues (n = 337 held-out genes with at least two TSSs). e, Example of 3′ UTR APA isoform predictions for gene RWDD1. Distal site usage is estimated as the coverage ratio of bins overlapping the distal-most and proximal-most polyadenylation sites. f, Comparison of predicted and measured fold change between APA coverage ratios of a given tissue and the remaining four tissues (n = 994 held-out genes with at least two sites).
Fig. 2 Predicting tissue-specific patterns of RNA-seq coverage in normal tissues. a, Example of tissue-specific gene expression predictions using Borzoi in five GTEx tissues for the blood-specific gene ADGRE1. The predicted and measured coverage of each RNA-seq experiment is aggregated in the bins that overlap exons (blue shaded regions; ‘max’ and ‘sum’ indicate maximum and total coverage). Exon annotations are shown below each coverage track (GENCODE v.41). b, Comparison of predicted and measured fold change between the aggregated coverage in a given tissue and the average coverage of the four other tissues for held-out test genes (n = 1,940). Blue and red dots represent replicate and ensemble model performance, respectively. Bar height represents average correlation. Inset, predictions for blood (color bar indicates Gaussian kernel density estimate). c, Example of alternative TSS isoform predictions for gene SGK1. TSS usage is estimated as a coverage ratio between bins overlapping each alternative start site (the ratio is annotated above each track). d, Comparison of predicted and measured TSS coverage ratio fold change, calculated between the coverage ratios (COVR) of a given tissue and the average coverage ratio of the remaining four tissues (n = 337 held-out genes with at least two TSSs). e, Example of 3′ UTR APA isoform predictions for gene RWDD1. Distal site usage is estimated as the coverage ratio of bins overlapping the distal-most and proximal-most polyadenylation sites. f, Comparison of predicted and measured fold change between APA coverage ratios of a given tissue and the remaining four tissues (n = 994 held-out genes with at least two sites).CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Fig. 3 Identifying transcriptional cis-regulatory motifs through tissue-specific attribution. a, Gradient attributions at the mode of maximum saliency for five GTEx tissues for liver-specific gene CFHR2 (mean ensemble saliency). All sequence logos have identically scaled y axes (min and max are displayed in the top right corner). Probable motif hits and their position weight matrices (PWMs) from HOCOMOCO (v.11) are shown. Annotated Tomtom E values represent the significance of the motif match. Inset, comparison of nucleotide-level saliencies for liver and muscle coverage tracks. b, A selection of motif clusters identified by MoDISco from gradient saliencies corresponding to four GTEx tissues. Shown are the MoDISco PWMs, the best-matching PWMs from HOCOMOCO and the distributions of tissue-specific gradient saliencies for seqlets belonging to a given cluster (n = number of seqlets). P values are computed using a two-sided Wilcoxon test between the gradient saliencies of the tissue with the largest and second largest 95th percentile of values. P values ranged from 0.075 for CEBPA/B/D (not significant) to 5.7 × 10−305 for SPI1/B. The E values represent the significance of motif matches as computed by Tomtom. Bottom left, comparison of seqlet saliencies for putative CEBPA/B/D between whole blood and liver. Each dot is colored by the measured difference in log(TPM) for the target gene. c, Comparison between the average difference in gradient saliency of seqlets belonging to motif clusters for pairs of GTEx tissues and the difference in measured log(TPM) for the corresponding TF genes. The median TPMs of genes belonging to the same TF subfamily (HOCOMOCO) were averaged.
Fig. 3 Identifying transcriptional cis-regulatory motifs through tissue-specific attribution. a, Gradient attributions at the mode of maximum saliency for five GTEx tissues for liver-specific gene CFHR2 (mean ensemble saliency). All sequence logos have identically scaled y axes (min and max are displayed in the top right corner). Probable motif hits and their position weight matrices (PWMs) from HOCOMOCO (v.11) are shown. Annotated Tomtom E values represent the significance of the motif match. Inset, comparison of nucleotide-level saliencies for liver and muscle coverage tracks. b, A selection of motif clusters identified by MoDISco from gradient saliencies corresponding to four GTEx tissues. Shown are the MoDISco PWMs, the best-matching PWMs from HOCOMOCO and the distributions of tissue-specific gradient saliencies for seqlets belonging to a given cluster (n = number of seqlets). P values are computed using a two-sided Wilcoxon test between the gradient saliencies of the tissue with the largest and second largest 95th percentile of values. P values ranged from 0.075 for CEBPA/B/D (not significant) to 5.7 × 10−305 for SPI1/B. The E values represent the significance of motif matches as computed by Tomtom. Bottom left, comparison of seqlet saliencies for putative CEBPA/B/D between whole blood and liver. Each dot is colored by the measured difference in log(TPM) for the target gene. c, Comparison between the average difference in gradient saliency of seqlets belonging to motif clusters for pairs of GTEx tissues and the difference in measured log(TPM) for the corresponding TF genes. The median TPMs of genes belonging to the same TF subfamily (HOCOMOCO) were averaged.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Fig. 4 Predicting the impact of context and distal regulatory elements on gene expression. a, Exon-aggregated gradient saliency for HBE1 across the 524 kb input (curves for four model replicates). CRE regions that are measured to regulate (green) or not regulate (red) HBE1 are annotated. Input-gated gradients for a 192 bp window centered on the most distal enhancer are shown at the bottom (min and max are displayed in the top right corner). b, Exon-aggregated gradients for MYC. c, Average precision (AUPRC) when using a statistic computed from the Borzoi or Enformer gradients within a local window around each CRE locus to classify whether it regulates the target gene (measurements from a previous publication65). The number of positives and total number of examples are displayed below each distance bin. The total number of examples is (<15K) n = 144, (15K–45K) n = 277, (45K–98K) n = 500 and (98K–262K) n = 1,220. 95% confidence intervals were estimated from 1,000-fold bootstrapping. d, AUPRCs when using Borzoi or Enformer gradients to classify regulating and non-regulating CREs in data from Gasperini et al. (2019)58. The total number of examples is (<15K) n = 1,230, (15K–45K) n = 2,445, (45K–98K) n = 4,058 and (98K–262K) n = 10,051. 95% confidence intervals were estimated from 1,000-fold bootstrapping. e, Left, predicted vs measured expression levels of TRIP reporter constructs based on Borzoi DNase coverage in K562 (promoter, ARHGEF9). Color corresponds to DamID LMNB1 measurements. Right, average Spearman’s R (20-fold cross-validation (CV)) when predicting TRIP expression based on different scores.
Fig. 4 Predicting the impact of context and distal regulatory elements on gene expression. a, Exon-aggregated gradient saliency for HBE1 across the 524 kb input (curves for four model replicates). CRE regions that are measured to regulate (green) or not regulate (red) HBE1 are annotated. Input-gated gradients for a 192 bp window centered on the most distal enhancer are shown at the bottom (min and max are displayed in the top right corner). b, Exon-aggregated gradients for MYC. c, Average precision (AUPRC) when using a statistic computed from the Borzoi or Enformer gradients within a local window around each CRE locus to classify whether it regulates the target gene (measurements from a previous publication65). The number of positives and total number of examples are displayed below each distance bin. The total number of examples is (<15K) n = 144, (15K–45K) n = 277, (45K–98K) n = 500 and (98K–262K) n = 1,220. 95% confidence intervals were estimated from 1,000-fold bootstrapping. d, AUPRCs when using Borzoi or Enformer gradients to classify regulating and non-regulating CREs in data from Gasperini et al. (2019)58. The total number of examples is (<15K) n = 1,230, (15K–45K) n = 2,445, (45K–98K) n = 4,058 and (98K–262K) n = 10,051. 95% confidence intervals were estimated from 1,000-fold bootstrapping. e, Left, predicted vs measured expression levels of TRIP reporter constructs based on Borzoi DNase coverage in K562 (promoter, ARHGEF9). Color corresponds to DamID LMNB1 measurements. Right, average Spearman’s R (20-fold cross-validation (CV)) when predicting TRIP expression based on different scores.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Fig. 5 Borzoi predictions of variant effects align with eQTL results and negative selection. a, Example eQTL rs1905542. Shown are the predicted RNA-seq whole blood coverage tracks for the reference (blue) and alternate (red) alleles, as well as the measured, aggregated RNA-seq coverage in whole blood for 32 homozygous carriers of the reference allele and 32 heterozygous or homozygous carriers of the alternate allele. Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light blue. Exon-aggregated coverage for each allele and their ratio are annotated. ISM maps are shown at the bottom with equally scaled y axes, along with probable motif hits and Tomtom motif E values. b, AUROC per GTEx tissue when using Borzoi or Enformer to classify fine-mapped eQTLs from distance-matched negatives. Each model’s mean AUROC is annotated. c, Comparison of tissue-specific GTEx eQTL classification performance as a function of distance to the TSS. Each violin plot shows the median AUPRC, interquartile range and 1.5× interquartile range as whiskers. P values are computed using a two-sided Wilcoxon test (n = 49 tissues). d, Left, comparison of Spearman’s R between predicted and observed GTEx eQTL effect sizes, using either Borzoi or Enformer with the differential log sum coverage statistic (‘SUM’; Methods). Each model’s mean Spearman’s R value is annotated. Right, predicted vs observed eQTL effect sizes in whole blood for Borzoi. e, Left, ROC obtained when classifying singleton variants from common variation (AF > 0.05) from gnomAD. Right, Mean AUROC with error bars indicating the 95% confidence interval, estimated from 1,000-fold bootstrapping (tenfold cross-validation). All variants were sampled from ENCODE candidate cis-regulatory elements (cCREs). AUROC scores are displayed in the legend.
Fig. 5 Borzoi predictions of variant effects align with eQTL results and negative selection. a, Example eQTL rs1905542. Shown are the predicted RNA-seq whole blood coverage tracks for the reference (blue) and alternate (red) alleles, as well as the measured, aggregated RNA-seq coverage in whole blood for 32 homozygous carriers of the reference allele and 32 heterozygous or homozygous carriers of the alternate allele. Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light blue. Exon-aggregated coverage for each allele and their ratio are annotated. ISM maps are shown at the bottom with equally scaled y axes, along with probable motif hits and Tomtom motif E values. b, AUROC per GTEx tissue when using Borzoi or Enformer to classify fine-mapped eQTLs from distance-matched negatives. Each model’s mean AUROC is annotated. c, Comparison of tissue-specific GTEx eQTL classification performance as a function of distance to the TSS. Each violin plot shows the median AUPRC, interquartile range and 1.5× interquartile range as whiskers. P values are computed using a two-sided Wilcoxon test (n = 49 tissues). d, Left, comparison of Spearman’s R between predicted and observed GTEx eQTL effect sizes, using either Borzoi or Enformer with the differential log sum coverage statistic (‘SUM’; Methods). Each model’s mean Spearman’s R value is annotated. Right, predicted vs observed eQTL effect sizes in whole blood for Borzoi. e, Left, ROC obtained when classifying singleton variants from common variation (AF > 0.05) from gnomAD. Right, Mean AUROC with error bars indicating the 95% confidence interval, estimated from 1,000-fold bootstrapping (tenfold cross-validation). All variants were sampled from ENCODE candidate cis-regulatory elements (cCREs). AUROC scores are displayed in the legend.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Fig. 6 Predicting APA and 3′ polyadenylation QTLs. a, Predicted and measured RNA-seq coverage across the distal PAS of SRSF11 (GTEx pooled tissue). Calculation of polyadenylation-centric coverage ratios (COVR) is illustrated in the figure. Attribution scores based on gradient saliency, ISM and ISM shuffle are shown at the bottom (min and max displayed in the right corner). b, MoDISco PWMs of well-known APA regulators, obtained from pooled GTEx coverage ratio gradients calculated for the Gasperini gene set58. c, Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx pooled) for variant rs114880747, along with measured coverage in two individuals with the reference allele and two heterozygous individuals (three tissues). The log ratio between the variant and reference COVR statistics is annotated in the plot. Attribution scores (bottom; plotted with equal y scale) suggest gain of a CstF motif. d, Predicted and measured coverage in individuals without and with variant rs80168986 (two individuals, three tissues each). Attribution scores (bottom) suggest gain of an HNRNPA1 motif. e, AUPRC when classifying fine-mapped GTEx paQTLs based on predicted RNA-seq coverage ratio statistics (tissue pooled), plotted as a function of decreasing distance threshold to the nearest 3′ UTR PAS. Each dot represents a permutation test (n = 100; dashed line, mean; Methods). f, paQTL classification AUPRC comparing variant predictions of Borzoi, APARENT2 and APARENT2+PolyADB. Each dot represents a permutation test (n = 100; dashed line, mean). g, Mean paQTL classification AUPRC of 100 permutations, plotted as a function of decreasing distance threshold to the nearest PAS. ‘A2+S+Borzoi’ represents an ensemble of all models.
Fig. 6 Predicting APA and 3′ polyadenylation QTLs. a, Predicted and measured RNA-seq coverage across the distal PAS of SRSF11 (GTEx pooled tissue). Calculation of polyadenylation-centric coverage ratios (COVR) is illustrated in the figure. Attribution scores based on gradient saliency, ISM and ISM shuffle are shown at the bottom (min and max displayed in the right corner). b, MoDISco PWMs of well-known APA regulators, obtained from pooled GTEx coverage ratio gradients calculated for the Gasperini gene set58. c, Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx pooled) for variant rs114880747, along with measured coverage in two individuals with the reference allele and two heterozygous individuals (three tissues). The log ratio between the variant and reference COVR statistics is annotated in the plot. Attribution scores (bottom; plotted with equal y scale) suggest gain of a CstF motif. d, Predicted and measured coverage in individuals without and with variant rs80168986 (two individuals, three tissues each). Attribution scores (bottom) suggest gain of an HNRNPA1 motif. e, AUPRC when classifying fine-mapped GTEx paQTLs based on predicted RNA-seq coverage ratio statistics (tissue pooled), plotted as a function of decreasing distance threshold to the nearest 3′ UTR PAS. Each dot represents a permutation test (n = 100; dashed line, mean; Methods). f, paQTL classification AUPRC comparing variant predictions of Borzoi, APARENT2 and APARENT2+PolyADB. Each dot represents a permutation test (n = 100; dashed line, mean). g, Mean paQTL classification AUPRC of 100 permutations, plotted as a function of decreasing distance threshold to the nearest PAS. ‘A2+S+Borzoi’ represents an ensemble of all models.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Fig. 7 Classifying sQTLs and intronic paQTLs from RNA-seq coverage predictions. a, Predicted and measured RNA-seq coverage across an exon in the SRSF11 gene (GTEx pooled tissue). Calculation of exon-to-intron coverage statistics (COVR) is illustrated in the figure. Attribution scores based on gradient saliency, ISM and ISM shuffle are shown below (min and max displayed in the right corner). b, PWMs of putative splicing regulators, obtained by running MoDISco on pooled GTEx coverage ratio gradients. c, Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue testis) for variant rs55695858, along with measured coverage in testis for five individuals with the reference allele and five heterozygous individuals (the sQTL is significant in testis). The log ratio between the variant and reference COVR statistics is annotated in the plot. Attribution scores are shown below (y axes plotted with equal scale). d, Comparison between the variant effect predictions of Borzoi, Pangolin and an ensemble of both models at the task of classifying fine-mapped splicing QTLs from GTEx, at different distance thresholds from an annotated splice junction. Each dot represents the AUPRC metric of each model for a given GTEx tissue (median AUPRC drawn as a dashed line). e, Average AUPRC for Pangolin, Borzoi and their ensemble as a function of decreasing distance threshold to the nearest splice junction.
Fig. 7 Classifying sQTLs and intronic paQTLs from RNA-seq coverage predictions. a, Predicted and measured RNA-seq coverage across an exon in the SRSF11 gene (GTEx pooled tissue). Calculation of exon-to-intron coverage statistics (COVR) is illustrated in the figure. Attribution scores based on gradient saliency, ISM and ISM shuffle are shown below (min and max displayed in the right corner). b, PWMs of putative splicing regulators, obtained by running MoDISco on pooled GTEx coverage ratio gradients. c, Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue testis) for variant rs55695858, along with measured coverage in testis for five individuals with the reference allele and five heterozygous individuals (the sQTL is significant in testis). The log ratio between the variant and reference COVR statistics is annotated in the plot. Attribution scores are shown below (y axes plotted with equal scale). d, Comparison between the variant effect predictions of Borzoi, Pangolin and an ensemble of both models at the task of classifying fine-mapped splicing QTLs from GTEx, at different distance thresholds from an annotated splice junction. Each dot represents the AUPRC metric of each model for a given GTEx tissue (median AUPRC drawn as a dashed line). e, Average AUPRC for Pangolin, Borzoi and their ensemble as a function of decreasing distance threshold to the nearest splice junction.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Extended Data Fig. 1 Additional test set evaluations and comparisons to Enformer. (a) - (d) Performance comparison between Borzoi and Enformer on held-out genomic (human) sequences when tasked with inferring (a) ChIP-seq TF, (b) ChIP-seq Histone, (c) DNase-seq, or (d) CAGE coverage. Each dot in the scatter plot represents the Pearson correlation between predicted and observed bin-level coverage values. The mean Pearson R of each model is annotated in the plot. The top row of plots displays performance when comparing Borzoi’s predictions to measurements at the original 32bp resolution, while the middle row of plots shows the result of aggregating the predicted and measured bins to 128bp resolution before computing Pearson R. Additionally, the published version of Enformer was fine-tuned on human assays without mouse data as a final step, while Borzoi was not. The bottom row of plots compares Borzoi at 128bp resolution to Enformer before fine-tuning, which is comparable to how Borzoi was trained. (e) Distribution of Pearson correlation metrics, for Enformer (green) or Borzoi (red), when comparing predicted to observed bin-level coverage values on held-out data. Bars with darker/lighter shades correspond to train/test performances respectively. Each bar displays the mean correlation across experiments, and the intervals mark the 5th and 95th percentiles. Only tracks shared by both models are included for CAGE (n = 638), DNase (n = 546), TF- (n = 1,203) and Histone (n = 1,634) ChIP. A total of 1,543 tracks were included for Borzoi’s RNA-seq bar. For Enformer, the results of the published (fine-tuned) version of the model are shown alongside the performance metrics before fine-tuning. For Borzoi, performance metrics for a single replicate (‘repl 0’) and the ensemble (‘ens’) are shown at 32bp resolution. (f) Distribution of Pearson correlation metrics for RNA-seq tracks when making bin-level, gene-level, or quantile-normalized and mean-subtracted (gene-level) predictions on the held-out test set. Results are shown for each individual Borzoi replicate (blue; ‘0’-‘3’) or the full ensemble (red; ‘e’). Each bar displays the mean correlation, and the intervals mark the 5th and 95th percentiles. Bin- / gene-level bars are estimated from 1,543 and 955 distinct (stranded) tracks / experiments respectively.
Extended Data Fig. 1 Additional test set evaluations and comparisons to Enformer. (a) - (d) Performance comparison between Borzoi and Enformer on held-out genomic (human) sequences when tasked with inferring (a) ChIP-seq TF, (b) ChIP-seq Histone, (c) DNase-seq, or (d) CAGE coverage. Each dot in the scatter plot represents the Pearson correlation between predicted and observed bin-level coverage values. The mean Pearson R of each model is annotated in the plot. The top row of plots displays performance when comparing Borzoi’s predictions to measurements at the original 32bp resolution, while the middle row of plots shows the result of aggregating the predicted and measured bins to 128bp resolution before computing Pearson R. Additionally, the published version of Enformer was fine-tuned on human assays without mouse data as a final step, while Borzoi was not. The bottom row of plots compares Borzoi at 128bp resolution to Enformer before fine-tuning, which is comparable to how Borzoi was trained. (e) Distribution of Pearson correlation metrics, for Enformer (green) or Borzoi (red), when comparing predicted to observed bin-level coverage values on held-out data. Bars with darker/lighter shades correspond to train/test performances respectively. Each bar displays the mean correlation across experiments, and the intervals mark the 5th and 95th percentiles. Only tracks shared by both models are included for CAGE (n = 638), DNase (n = 546), TF- (n = 1,203) and Histone (n = 1,634) ChIP. A total of 1,543 tracks were included for Borzoi’s RNA-seq bar. For Enformer, the results of the published (fine-tuned) version of the model are shown alongside the performance metrics before fine-tuning. For Borzoi, performance metrics for a single replicate (‘repl 0’) and the ensemble (‘ens’) are shown at 32bp resolution. (f) Distribution of Pearson correlation metrics for RNA-seq tracks when making bin-level, gene-level, or quantile-normalized and mean-subtracted (gene-level) predictions on the held-out test set. Results are shown for each individual Borzoi replicate (blue; ‘0’-‘3’) or the full ensemble (red; ‘e’). Each bar displays the mean correlation, and the intervals mark the 5th and 95th percentiles. Bin- / gene-level bars are estimated from 1,543 and 955 distinct (stranded) tracks / experiments respectively.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Extended Data Fig. 2 Attention matrix visualization. (a) Attention weight matrix averaged across all 8 heads of the final transformer layers, shown for example region chr1:69993520-70517808. Average predicted RNA-seq coverage for 89 GTEx samples is shown above the attention heatmap. Ensembl gene models and H3K4me3 tracks are shown below. Exon junctions (blue stars) and polyadenylation signals (red stars) are annotated in the plot. Genes and their bounding boxes are also annotated (green = forward strand, blue = reverse strand). (b)-(d) Enlarged view of the attention weight matrix for the SRSF11 gene, highlighting (b) a promoter region (and alternative TSS), (c) several introns and exons, and (d) the 3’ UTR. Gradient saliencies (‘Grad x Inp’) of either the output coverage tracks (‘Cov’, within the brown boxes) or the attention matrix (‘Att’, within the blue boxes) are displayed below each vignette. The regions highlighted in the saliency logos are either dinucleotide-shuffled (promoter) or mutated (exon and 3’ UTR) and the resulting coverage predictions are depicted above each logo (blue = reference, red = variant). The altered attention matrices due to the mutations are also shown in (c) and (d). Exon junctions (blue stars) and polyadenylation signals (red stars) are annotated in the plots. FANTOM5 CAGE peaks / counts are annotated below the heatmap and sequence logo in (b).
Extended Data Fig. 2 Attention matrix visualization. (a) Attention weight matrix averaged across all 8 heads of the final transformer layers, shown for example region chr1:69993520-70517808. Average predicted RNA-seq coverage for 89 GTEx samples is shown above the attention heatmap. Ensembl gene models and H3K4me3 tracks are shown below. Exon junctions (blue stars) and polyadenylation signals (red stars) are annotated in the plot. Genes and their bounding boxes are also annotated (green = forward strand, blue = reverse strand). (b)-(d) Enlarged view of the attention weight matrix for the SRSF11 gene, highlighting (b) a promoter region (and alternative TSS), (c) several introns and exons, and (d) the 3’ UTR. Gradient saliencies (‘Grad x Inp’) of either the output coverage tracks (‘Cov’, within the brown boxes) or the attention matrix (‘Att’, within the blue boxes) are displayed below each vignette. The regions highlighted in the saliency logos are either dinucleotide-shuffled (promoter) or mutated (exon and 3’ UTR) and the resulting coverage predictions are depicted above each logo (blue = reference, red = variant). The altered attention matrices due to the mutations are also shown in (c) and (d). Exon junctions (blue stars) and polyadenylation signals (red stars) are annotated in the plots. FANTOM5 CAGE peaks / counts are annotated below the heatmap and sequence logo in (b).CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Extended Data Fig. 3 Example coverage predictions for genes that exhibit differential isoform usage. (a) Predicted and measured RNA-seq coverage patterns for pairs of GTEx tissues exhibiting differential TSS usage, for two example genes: ARHGEF18 (GTEx whole blood vs brain) and TACC1 (whole blood vs muscle). Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue, TSSs and pA sites are drawn as dashed lines, and ‘max’ refers to the maximum bin value in the exonic regions (in a - b). TSS usage is estimated as a coverage ratio between bins overlapping each alternative start site (the ratio is annotated above each track). The examples were selected by searching for test genes with largest measured fold change in TSS usage between each pair of tissues, where measured usage was estimated from FANTOM5 TSS counts (Methods). (b) Predicted and measured coverage in GTEx tissues whole blood and brain for two test genes with increased coverage over the distal polyadenylation signal in brain compared to blood: PRR5L and MARCH6. Distal usage is estimated as a coverage ratio between bins overlapping the distal site relative to the proximal site (the ratio is annotated above each track). The genes were chosen from the set of genes with maximal fold change of distal-to-proximal coverage ratio in brain. Their brain-specific distal polyadenylation bias were verified in bulk 3’-sequencing data obtained from the database PolyASite 2.0 (Methods).
Extended Data Fig. 3 Example coverage predictions for genes that exhibit differential isoform usage. (a) Predicted and measured RNA-seq coverage patterns for pairs of GTEx tissues exhibiting differential TSS usage, for two example genes: ARHGEF18 (GTEx whole blood vs brain) and TACC1 (whole blood vs muscle). Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue, TSSs and pA sites are drawn as dashed lines, and ‘max’ refers to the maximum bin value in the exonic regions (in a - b). TSS usage is estimated as a coverage ratio between bins overlapping each alternative start site (the ratio is annotated above each track). The examples were selected by searching for test genes with largest measured fold change in TSS usage between each pair of tissues, where measured usage was estimated from FANTOM5 TSS counts (Methods). (b) Predicted and measured coverage in GTEx tissues whole blood and brain for two test genes with increased coverage over the distal polyadenylation signal in brain compared to blood: PRR5L and MARCH6. Distal usage is estimated as a coverage ratio between bins overlapping the distal site relative to the proximal site (the ratio is annotated above each track). The genes were chosen from the set of genes with maximal fold change of distal-to-proximal coverage ratio in brain. Their brain-specific distal polyadenylation bias were verified in bulk 3’-sequencing data obtained from the database PolyASite 2.0 (Methods).CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Extended Data Fig. 4 Splice site detection and alternative splicing examples. (a) Predicted and measured RNA-seq coverage across an exon in the SRSF11 gene (GTEx pooled-tissue), centered on its splice donor. Each coverage track is independently normalized. Calculation of exon-to-intron coverage statistics (COVR) is illustrated in the figure. Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue, and junctions are drawn with dashed lines. (b) Comparison between Borzoi’s predicted exon-to-intron coverage ratio statistic and Pangolin’s predicted splice usage when classifying annotated splice donors/acceptors from matched negatives in the reference genome. Average precision (AUPRC) is displayed separately for each type of splice junction (AG - Acceptor, GT/GC - Donor) and each dot corresponds to a GTEx tissue. (c) Average precision when using Borzoi to classify annotated splice junctions, calculated separately for protein-coding and long non-coding RNA. (d) Predicted and measured RNA-seq coverage across an alternative splicing event in the SLC25A3 gene for GTEx tissues whole blood and muscle (both predictions and measurements are pooled across 3 tissue-specific samples for blood and muscle). Each coverage track is independently normalized. Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue, and junctions are drawn with dashed lines (in d - e). (e) Predicted and measured blood- and muscle RNA-seq coverage across an alternative splicing event in the PKM1 gene (coverage tracks are pooled across 3 samples per tissue).
Extended Data Fig. 4 Splice site detection and alternative splicing examples. (a) Predicted and measured RNA-seq coverage across an exon in the SRSF11 gene (GTEx pooled-tissue), centered on its splice donor. Each coverage track is independently normalized. Calculation of exon-to-intron coverage statistics (COVR) is illustrated in the figure. Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue, and junctions are drawn with dashed lines. (b) Comparison between Borzoi’s predicted exon-to-intron coverage ratio statistic and Pangolin’s predicted splice usage when classifying annotated splice donors/acceptors from matched negatives in the reference genome. Average precision (AUPRC) is displayed separately for each type of splice junction (AG - Acceptor, GT/GC - Donor) and each dot corresponds to a GTEx tissue. (c) Average precision when using Borzoi to classify annotated splice junctions, calculated separately for protein-coding and long non-coding RNA. (d) Predicted and measured RNA-seq coverage across an alternative splicing event in the SLC25A3 gene for GTEx tissues whole blood and muscle (both predictions and measurements are pooled across 3 tissue-specific samples for blood and muscle). Each coverage track is independently normalized. Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue, and junctions are drawn with dashed lines (in d - e). (e) Predicted and measured blood- and muscle RNA-seq coverage across an alternative splicing event in the PKM1 gene (coverage tracks are pooled across 3 samples per tissue).CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Extended Data Fig. 5 Prioritizing gene-enhancer pairs from CRISPR perturbation data. (a) Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) when using a statistic computed from the Borzoi or Enformer gradient saliencies to classify whether or not a given CRE locus regulates a target gene (measurements from Fulco et al., 2016, 2019 and Klann et al., 2017, and others)60–65. The baseline performance (blue bars) corresponds to using only TSS distance when performing the classification. The number of positives and total number of examples are displayed below each distance bin. The total number of examples are: (< 15K) n = 144, (15K - 45K) n = 277, (45K - 98K) n = 500, (98K - 262K) n = 1,220. 95% confidence intervals were estimated from 1,000-fold bootstrapping. (b) AUROCs when using the Borzoi or Enformer gradient scores to classify regulating / non-regulating CRE loci in the data from Gasperini et al. (2019)58. The total number of examples are: (< 15K) n = 1,230, (15K - 45K) n = 2,445, (45K - 98K) n = 4,058, (98K - 262K) n = 10,051. 95% confidence intervals were estimated from 1,000-fold bootstrapping.
Extended Data Fig. 5 Prioritizing gene-enhancer pairs from CRISPR perturbation data. (a) Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) when using a statistic computed from the Borzoi or Enformer gradient saliencies to classify whether or not a given CRE locus regulates a target gene (measurements from Fulco et al., 2016, 2019 and Klann et al., 2017, and others)60–65. The baseline performance (blue bars) corresponds to using only TSS distance when performing the classification. The number of positives and total number of examples are displayed below each distance bin. The total number of examples are: (< 15K) n = 144, (15K - 45K) n = 277, (45K - 98K) n = 500, (98K - 262K) n = 1,220. 95% confidence intervals were estimated from 1,000-fold bootstrapping. (b) AUROCs when using the Borzoi or Enformer gradient scores to classify regulating / non-regulating CRE loci in the data from Gasperini et al. (2019)58. The total number of examples are: (< 15K) n = 1,230, (15K - 45K) n = 2,445, (45K - 98K) n = 4,058, (98K - 262K) n = 10,051. 95% confidence intervals were estimated from 1,000-fold bootstrapping.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Extended Data Fig. 6 Variant interpretation of fine-mapped eQTLs. (a) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue whole blood) for the WLS gene when introducing variant rs72670481. Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue. Exon-aggregated coverage for the alternate and reference alleles, and their ratio, are annotated in the coverage plot (in a - b). Measured coverage in 6 individuals with the reference allele and 6 hetero- or homozygous individuals for the alternative allele is displayed below the predictions, along with attribution scores computed in a local window centered on the variant. The attributions scores are calculated with respect to the log-sum of exon coverage for the WLS gene. The sequence logo y-axes are equally scaled for both the reference and alternate alleles (min / max annotated in the right corner). Likely motif hits are displayed below the sequence logos (the E-values represent the significance of the motif match, as computed by Tomtom). (b) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue whole blood) for variant rs3890144, along with measured coverage in 8 individuals with the reference allele and in 8 individuals who are either hetero- or homozygous for the alternative allele. Attribution scores in a window centered on the variant, calculated with respect to EPHB4 coverage, displayed at the bottom (equally scaled y-axes for the reference and alternate allele; min / max annotated in the right corner). Likely motifs and Tomtom E-values shown below the sequence logos.
Extended Data Fig. 6 Variant interpretation of fine-mapped eQTLs. (a) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue whole blood) for the WLS gene when introducing variant rs72670481. Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue. Exon-aggregated coverage for the alternate and reference alleles, and their ratio, are annotated in the coverage plot (in a - b). Measured coverage in 6 individuals with the reference allele and 6 hetero- or homozygous individuals for the alternative allele is displayed below the predictions, along with attribution scores computed in a local window centered on the variant. The attributions scores are calculated with respect to the log-sum of exon coverage for the WLS gene. The sequence logo y-axes are equally scaled for both the reference and alternate alleles (min / max annotated in the right corner). Likely motif hits are displayed below the sequence logos (the E-values represent the significance of the motif match, as computed by Tomtom). (b) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue whole blood) for variant rs3890144, along with measured coverage in 8 individuals with the reference allele and in 8 individuals who are either hetero- or homozygous for the alternative allele. Attribution scores in a window centered on the variant, calculated with respect to EPHB4 coverage, displayed at the bottom (equally scaled y-axes for the reference and alternate allele; min / max annotated in the right corner). Likely motifs and Tomtom E-values shown below the sequence logos.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Extended Data Fig. 7 Variant interpretation of fine-mapped paQTLs. (a) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue-pooled) for variant rs74327114 in the FBXO9 gene, along with measured coverage in 1 individual with the reference allele and 1 heterozygous individual (averaged across two tissues each). Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue, and pA sites are drawn with black dashed lines. The log ratio between the coverage ratio (COVR) statistics computed for the alternate and reference alleles is annotated in the plot. Attribution scores of the predicted COVR statistic, computed using three separate methods, are displayed to the right and indicate loss of an extra hexamer motif, resulting in moderate reduction in polyadenylation efficiency. The sequence logo y-axes are equally scaled for both the reference and alternate alleles (min / max annotated in the right corner).
Extended Data Fig. 7 Variant interpretation of fine-mapped paQTLs. (a) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue-pooled) for variant rs74327114 in the FBXO9 gene, along with measured coverage in 1 individual with the reference allele and 1 heterozygous individual (averaged across two tissues each). Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue, and pA sites are drawn with black dashed lines. The log ratio between the coverage ratio (COVR) statistics computed for the alternate and reference alleles is annotated in the plot. Attribution scores of the predicted COVR statistic, computed using three separate methods, are displayed to the right and indicate loss of an extra hexamer motif, resulting in moderate reduction in polyadenylation efficiency. The sequence logo y-axes are equally scaled for both the reference and alternate alleles (min / max annotated in the right corner).CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Extended Data Fig. 8 Variant interpretation of fine-mapped sQTLs. (a) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue whole blood) for variant rs1882553 using Borzoi, along with measured coverage in 32 individuals with the reference allele and 32 hetero- or homozygous individuals for the alternative allele (whole blood samples). Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue. The log ratio between the coverage ratio (COVR) statistics computed for the alternate and reference alleles is annotated in the plot (in a - b). Attribution scores (bottom) are computed with respect to the predicted log ratio of exon-to-intron coverage, comparing three methods (equally scaled y-axes for the reference and alternate allele, displayed in reverse-complemented form; min / max annotated in the right corner). (b) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue adipose) for variant rs10411704, along with measured coverage in 20 individuals with the reference allele and 20 hetero- or homozygous individuals for the alternative allele (adipose samples). Attribution scores of the predicted exon-to-exon log coverage ratio are displayed at the bottom (equally scaled y-axes for the reference and alternate allele; min / max annotated in the right corner).
Extended Data Fig. 8 Variant interpretation of fine-mapped sQTLs. (a) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue whole blood) for variant rs1882553 using Borzoi, along with measured coverage in 32 individuals with the reference allele and 32 hetero- or homozygous individuals for the alternative allele (whole blood samples). Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue. The log ratio between the coverage ratio (COVR) statistics computed for the alternate and reference alleles is annotated in the plot (in a - b). Attribution scores (bottom) are computed with respect to the predicted log ratio of exon-to-intron coverage, comparing three methods (equally scaled y-axes for the reference and alternate allele, displayed in reverse-complemented form; min / max annotated in the right corner). (b) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue adipose) for variant rs10411704, along with measured coverage in 20 individuals with the reference allele and 20 hetero- or homozygous individuals for the alternative allele (adipose samples). Attribution scores of the predicted exon-to-exon log coverage ratio are displayed at the bottom (equally scaled y-axes for the reference and alternate allele; min / max annotated in the right corner).CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central
Extended Data Fig. 9 Variant interpretation of fine-mapped intronic paQTLs. (a) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue nerve) for variant rs3830026 and measured coverage in 16 individuals with the reference allele and 16 individuals who are hetero- or homozygous for the alternative allele (the QTL is significant in nerve samples). Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue. The computation of polyadenylation- and splice-centric coverage ratio (COVR) statistics is illustrated. The log ratio between the splice-centric COVR statistics computed for the alternate and reference alleles is annotated in the plot. Bottom: Attribution scores of the exon-to-intron coverage ratio (COVR Splice) and the exon-to-exon coverage ratio (COVR PolyA), plotted in reverse-complement with equally scaled y-axes for the reference and alternate allele (min / max annotated in the right corner of each sequence logo). (b) Average AUPRC when using Borzoi to classify fine-mapped intronic paQTLs (tissue-pooled). Each dot represents a permutation test and the dashed line shows the mean (n = 100; Methods).
Extended Data Fig. 9 Variant interpretation of fine-mapped intronic paQTLs. (a) Predicted RNA-seq coverage (GTEx tissue nerve) for variant rs3830026 and measured coverage in 16 individuals with the reference allele and 16 individuals who are hetero- or homozygous for the alternative allele (the QTL is significant in nerve samples). Exon-overlapping bins are shaded light-blue. The computation of polyadenylation- and splice-centric coverage ratio (COVR) statistics is illustrated. The log ratio between the splice-centric COVR statistics computed for the alternate and reference alleles is annotated in the plot. Bottom: Attribution scores of the exon-to-intron coverage ratio (COVR Splice) and the exon-to-exon coverage ratio (COVR PolyA), plotted in reverse-complement with equally scaled y-axes for the reference and alternate allele (min / max annotated in the right corner of each sequence logo). (b) Average AUPRC when using Borzoi to classify fine-mapped intronic paQTLs (tissue-pooled). Each dot represents a permutation test and the dashed line shows the mean (n = 100; Methods).CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Verification

Claims the paper makes

69 Own result · 23 No basis given · 21 Own interpretation · 17 Supported · 16 Own method · 9 Partly supported · 5 Supported so far · 4 Couldn’t confirm · 1 Not checked yet · accuracy not yet measured

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  • Probably not a substantial claim. 49
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 28
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 1
70 of 70
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    RNA-seq coverage patterns integrate multiple layers of gene regulation: transcription, splicing, termination or polyadenylation and RNA stability.

    “Furthermore, RNA-seq coverage patterns integrate multiple layers of gene regulation; namely, transcription, splicing, termination or polyadenylation and RNA stability.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    RNA-seq is far richer than previously modeled assays.

    “First, RNA-seq is far richer than previously modeled assays.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    There are large amounts of RNA-seq data available, describing a wide variety of cell and tissue states across many species.

    “Second, there are large amounts of RNA-seq data available, describing a wide variety of cell and tissue states across many species.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Mammalian genes often span hundreds of thousands of nucleotides.

    “Given that mammalian genes often span hundreds of thousands of nucleotides, effective RNA-seq modeling requires working with very large sequences and algorithms that propagate information across large distances.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Computational limitations create a trade-off between base resolution and long sequences.

    “Computational limitations create a trade-off between these two considerations.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Self-attention is a critical operation, allowing every pair of positions to exchange information.

    “Self-attention is a critical operation, allowing every pair of positions to exchange information.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The held-out test sequences from the human genome and orthologous mouse regions are representative for evaluating genome-wide performance.

    “We evaluated performance on a set of randomly held-out sequences from the human genome and orthologous mouse regions.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Including Enformer training datasets helps the model identify salient regulatory elements.

    “To help the model identify salient regulatory elements, we paired these data with the thousands of training datasets from the Enformer model, including CAGE, DNase-seq, ATAC–seq and ChIP–seq tracks (Methods).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    RNA-seq is a base-resolution readout of transcribed and usually processed RNAs.

    “RNA-seq is a base-resolution readout of transcribed and usually processed RNAs.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The inverse transforms applied to Borzoi's raw predictions yield a tensor that can be reasonably assumed to reflect counts.

    “Here, we assume that we have applied the inverse transforms to y such that the tensor can be reasonably assumed to reflect counts”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Mammalian genes regularly exceed a full span of >100 kb.

    “Mammalian genes regularly exceed a full span of >100 kb”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Mammalian exons regularly cover fewer than 128 bp.

    “mammalian exons regularly cover fewer than 128 bp”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Pangolin will score potential de novo splice gains at the variant position even when the command allows at most a distance of 2,000 bp from an annotated splice junction, producing variant effect scores for all variants.

    “Although this command allows at most a distance of 2,000 bp from an annotated splice junction, Pangolin will also score potential de novo splice gains at the variant position, meaning that the command will produce variant effect scores for all variants (even those separated by >2,000 bp from a splice site).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The two final attention layers of Borzoi capture potential assay-specific or experiment-specific biases.

    “to mitigate capturing potential assay-specific or experiment-specific biases and focus on general knowledge, we decided not to use the two final attention layers”
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Citations

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Smilkov, D., Thorat, N., Kim, B., Viégas, F. & Wattenberg, M. SmoothGrad: removing noise by adding noise. In International Conference on Machine Learning, Workshop on Visualization for Deep Learning (ICML, 2017).

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Metadata

Authors
Linder, J., Srivastava, D., Yuan, H., Agarwal, V., & Kelley, D. R.
Affiliations
Calico Life Sciences (US)
Corresponding author
  • Linder, Johannes
  • Kelley, David R.
Venue
Nature Genetics
Published
2025-01-08
Volume
57
Issue
4
Pages
949-961
ISSN
  • 1061-4036 (ISSN-L)
  • 1546-1718
OpenAlex
W4406178430
Cited by
265
References
119
Citations by year
2026: 131 · 2025: 95
FWCI
119.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Genetics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
  • National Institute of Mental Health
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse
  • National Human Genome Research Institute
  • NIH Office of the Director
  • National Cancer Institute
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
  • Common Fund
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA Research and Splicing
Keywords
gene expression regulation, Borzoi, quantitative trait loci, splicing, polyadenylation, transcription, post-transcriptional regulation, cis-regulatory motifs, cell type-specific gene expression, tissue-specific gene expression, attribution methods
MeSH terms
Machine Learning, RNA-Seq, Animals, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Models, Genetic, Sequence Analysis, RNA, Quantitative Trait Loci

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