Supervised promoter recognition: a benchmark framework

Motivation Deep learning has become a prevalent method in identifying genomic regulatory sequences such as promoters. In a number of recent papers, the performance of deep learning models has continually been reported as an improvement over alternatives for sequence-based promoter recognition. However, the performance improvements in these models do not account for the different datasets that models are evaluated on. The lack of a consensus dataset and procedure for benchmarking purposes has made the comparison of each model's true performance difficult to assess. Results We present a framework called Supervised Promoter Recognition Framework ('SUPR REF') capable of streamlining the complete process of training, validating, testing, and comparing promoter recognition models in a systematic manner. SUPR REF includes the creation of biologically relevant benchmark datasets to be used in the evaluation process of deep learning promoter recognition models. We showcase this framework by comparing the models' performances on alternative datasets, and properly evaluate previously published models on new benchmark datasets. Our results show that the reliability of deep learning ab initio promoter recognition models on eukaryotic genomic sequences is still not at a sufficient level, as overall performance is still low. These results originate from a subset of promoters, the well-known RNA Polymerase II core promoters. Furthermore, given the observational nature of these data, cross-validation results from small promoter datasets need to be interpreted with caution.

Automated summary

This article presents a framework called SUPR REF, which streamlines the process of training, validating, testing, and comparing promoter recognition models. Using biologically relevant benchmark datasets, the authors showcase the framework and evaluate the performance of previous models on new benchmark datasets. The results indicate that there is still room for improvement in the reliability of deep learning methods for promoter recognition in eukaryotic genomic sequences.