OpDetect: A convolutional and recurrent neural network classifier for precise and sensitive operon detection from RNA-seq data.

An operon refers to a group of neighbouring genes belonging to one or more overlapping transcription units that are transcribed in the same direction and have at least one gene in common. Operons are a characteristic of prokaryotic genomes. Identifying which genes belong to the same operon facilitat...

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Main Authors: Rezvan Karaji, Lourdes Peña-Castillo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329355
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author Rezvan Karaji
Lourdes Peña-Castillo
author_facet Rezvan Karaji
Lourdes Peña-Castillo
author_sort Rezvan Karaji
collection DOAJ
description An operon refers to a group of neighbouring genes belonging to one or more overlapping transcription units that are transcribed in the same direction and have at least one gene in common. Operons are a characteristic of prokaryotic genomes. Identifying which genes belong to the same operon facilitates understanding of gene function and regulation. There are several computational approaches for operon detection; however, many of these computational approaches have been developed for a specific target bacterium or require information only available for a restricted number of bacterial species. Here, we introduce a general method, OpDetect, that directly utilizes RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) reads as a signal over nucleotide bases in the genome. This representation enabled us to employ a convolutional and recurrent deep neural network architecture which demonstrated superior performance in terms of recall, F1-score and Area under the Receiver-Operating characteristic Curve (AUROC) compared to previous approaches. Additionally, OpDetect showcases species-agnostic capabilities, successfully detecting operons in a wide range of bacterial species and even in Caenorhabditis elegans, one of few eukaryotic organisms known to have operons. OpDetect is available at https://github.com/BioinformaticsLabAtMUN/OpDetect.
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spelling doaj-art-36eb5d3ac6c440bfb9211bf2d6a70be22025-08-20T02:56:47ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01208e032935510.1371/journal.pone.0329355OpDetect: A convolutional and recurrent neural network classifier for precise and sensitive operon detection from RNA-seq data.Rezvan KarajiLourdes Peña-CastilloAn operon refers to a group of neighbouring genes belonging to one or more overlapping transcription units that are transcribed in the same direction and have at least one gene in common. Operons are a characteristic of prokaryotic genomes. Identifying which genes belong to the same operon facilitates understanding of gene function and regulation. There are several computational approaches for operon detection; however, many of these computational approaches have been developed for a specific target bacterium or require information only available for a restricted number of bacterial species. Here, we introduce a general method, OpDetect, that directly utilizes RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) reads as a signal over nucleotide bases in the genome. This representation enabled us to employ a convolutional and recurrent deep neural network architecture which demonstrated superior performance in terms of recall, F1-score and Area under the Receiver-Operating characteristic Curve (AUROC) compared to previous approaches. Additionally, OpDetect showcases species-agnostic capabilities, successfully detecting operons in a wide range of bacterial species and even in Caenorhabditis elegans, one of few eukaryotic organisms known to have operons. OpDetect is available at https://github.com/BioinformaticsLabAtMUN/OpDetect.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329355
spellingShingle Rezvan Karaji
Lourdes Peña-Castillo
OpDetect: A convolutional and recurrent neural network classifier for precise and sensitive operon detection from RNA-seq data.
PLoS ONE
title OpDetect: A convolutional and recurrent neural network classifier for precise and sensitive operon detection from RNA-seq data.
title_full OpDetect: A convolutional and recurrent neural network classifier for precise and sensitive operon detection from RNA-seq data.
title_fullStr OpDetect: A convolutional and recurrent neural network classifier for precise and sensitive operon detection from RNA-seq data.
title_full_unstemmed OpDetect: A convolutional and recurrent neural network classifier for precise and sensitive operon detection from RNA-seq data.
title_short OpDetect: A convolutional and recurrent neural network classifier for precise and sensitive operon detection from RNA-seq data.
title_sort opdetect a convolutional and recurrent neural network classifier for precise and sensitive operon detection from rna seq data
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329355
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