Prediction of RNA Secondary Structure Using Quantum-inspired Genetic Algorithms

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-143
Author(s):  
Sha Shi ◽  
Xin-Li Zhang ◽  
Le Yang ◽  
Wei Du ◽  
Xian-Li Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Computing ◽  
Secondary Structure ◽  
Rna Structure ◽  
Structure Prediction ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure ◽  
Prediction Accuracy ◽  
Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Minimum Free Energy ◽  
Rna Sequences ◽  
New Strategy

Background: The prediction of RNA secondary structure using optimization algorithms is key to understand the real structure of an RNA. Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are popular strategies for RNA secondary structure prediction. However, compared to most state-of-the-art software based on DPAs, the performances of EAs are a bit far from satisfactory. Objective: Therefore, a more powerful strategy is required to improve the performances of EAs when applied to the prediciton of RNA secondary structures. Methods: The idea of quantum computing is introduced here yielding a new strategy to find all possible legal paired-bases with the constraint of minimum free energy. The sate of a stem pool with size N is encoded as a population of QGA, which is represented by N quantum bits but not classical bits. The updating of populations is accomplished by so-called quantum crossover operations, quantum mutation operations and quantum rotation operations. Results: The numerical results show that the performances of traditional EAs are significantly improved by using QGA with regard to not only prediction accuracy and sensitivity but also complexity. Moreover, for RNA sequences with middle-short length, QGA even improves the state-of-art software based on DPAs in terms of both prediction accuracy and sensitivity. Conclusion: This work sheds an interesting light on the applications of quantum computing on RNA structure prediction.

PREDICTION OF SECONDARY STRUCTURE OF RNAs WITH PSEUDOKNOTS USING MATCHED FILTERS

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (04) ◽  
pp. 455-469
Author(s):  
RAJASEKHAR KAKUMANI ◽  
M. OMAIR AHMAD ◽  
VIJAY KUMAR DEVABHAKTUNI
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Structure ◽  
Rna Structure ◽  
Structure Prediction ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure ◽  
Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Matched Filter ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Rna Sequences ◽  
Biological Functionality

Prediction of ribonucleic acid (RNA) secondary structure is an important task in bioinformatics. The RNA structure is known to influence its biological functionality. RNA secondary structure contains many substructures such as stems, loops and pseudoknots. The substructure pseudoknot occurs in several classes of RNAs, and plays a vital role in many biological processes. Prediction of pseudoknots in RNA is challenging and still an open research problem. Several computational methods based on dynamic programming, genetic algorithms, statistical models, etc., have been proposed with varying success. In this paper, we employ matched filtering approach to determine the RNA secondary structure containing pseudoknots. The central idea is to use a matched filter to identify the longest possible stem patterns in the base-pairing matrix of an RNA. The stem patterns obtained are then used to determine the locations of the other substructures such as loops and pseudoknots present in the RNA. Comparison of the prediction results, for RNA sequences derived from PseudoBase, illustrate the effectiveness and the accuracy of our proposed approach as compared to some of the existing popular RNA secondary structure prediction methods.

scholarly journals A max-margin training of RNA secondary structure prediction integrated with the thermodynamic model

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manato Akiyama ◽  
Kengo Sato ◽  
Yasubumi Sakakibara
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Secondary Structure ◽  
Structure Prediction ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure ◽  
Prediction Accuracy ◽  
Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Fine Grained

AbstractMotivation: A popular approach for predicting RNA secondary structure is the thermodynamic nearest neighbor model that finds a thermodynamically most stable secondary structure with the minimum free energy (MFE). For further improvement, an alternative approach that is based on machine learning techniques has been developed. The machine learning based approach can employ a fine-grained model that includes much richer feature representations with the ability to fit the training data. Although a machine learning based fine-grained model achieved extremely high performance in prediction accuracy, a possibility of the risk of overfitting for such model has been reported.Results: In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm for RNA secondary structure prediction that integrates the thermodynamic approach and the machine learning based weighted approach. Ourfine-grained model combines the experimentally determined thermodynamic parameters with a large number of scoring parameters for detailed contexts of features that are trained by the structured support vector machine (SSVM) with the ℓ1 regularization to avoid overfitting. Our benchmark shows that our algorithm achieves the best prediction accuracy compared with existing methods, and heavy overfitting cannot be observed.Availability: The implementation of our algorithm is available at https://github.com/keio-bioinformatics/mxfold.Contact:[email protected]

scholarly journals Quantitative high-throughput tests of ubiquitous RNA secondary structure prediction algorithms via RNA/protein binding

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winston R. Becker ◽  
Inga Jarmoskaite ◽  
Kalli Kappel ◽  
Pavanapuresan P. Vaidyanathan ◽  
Sarah K. Denny ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Structure ◽  
Protein Binding ◽  
Rna Structure ◽  
Structure Prediction ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Vast Number ◽  
Prediction Algorithms

AbstractNearest-neighbor (NN) rules provide a simple and powerful quantitative framework for RNA structure prediction that is strongly supported for canonical Watson-Crick duplexes from a plethora of thermodynamic measurements. Predictions of RNA secondary structure based on nearest-neighbor (NN) rules are routinely used to understand biological function and to engineer and control new functions in biotechnology. However, NN applications to RNA structural features such as internal and terminal loops rely on approximations and assumptions, with sparse experimental coverage of the vast number of possible sequence and structural features. To test to what extent NN rules accurately predict thermodynamic stabilities across RNAs with non-WC features, we tested their predictions using a quantitative high-throughput assay platform, RNA-MaP. Using a thermodynamic assay with coupled protein binding, we carried out equilibrium measurements for over 1000 RNAs with a range of predicted secondary structure stabilities. Our results revealed substantial scatter and systematic deviations between NN predictions and observed stabilities. Solution salt effects and incorrect or omitted loop parameters contribute to these observed deviations. Our results demonstrate the need to independently and quantitatively test NN computational algorithms to identify their capabilities and limitations. RNA-MaP and related approaches can be used to test computational predictions and can be adapted to obtain experimental data to improve RNA secondary structure and other prediction algorithms.Significance statementRNA secondary structure prediction algorithms are routinely used to understand, predict and design functional RNA structures in biology and biotechnology. Given the vast number of RNA sequence and structural features, these predictions rely on a series of approximations, and independent tests are needed to quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of predicted RNA structural stabilities. Here we measure the stabilities of over 1000 RNA constructs by using a coupled protein binding assay. Our results reveal substantial deviations from the RNA stabilities predicted by popular algorithms, and identify factors contributing to the observed deviations. We demonstrate the importance of quantitative, experimental tests of computational RNA structure predictions and present an approach that can be used to routinely test and improve the prediction accuracy.

scholarly journals A max-margin training of RNA secondary structure prediction integrated with the thermodynamic model

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (06) ◽  
pp. 1840025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manato Akiyama ◽  
Kengo Sato ◽  
Yasubumi Sakakibara
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Secondary Structure ◽  
Structure Prediction ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure ◽  
Prediction Accuracy ◽  
Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Fine Grained

A popular approach for predicting RNA secondary structure is the thermodynamic nearest-neighbor model that finds a thermodynamically most stable secondary structure with minimum free energy (MFE). For further improvement, an alternative approach that is based on machine learning techniques has been developed. The machine learning-based approach can employ a fine-grained model that includes much richer feature representations with the ability to fit the training data. Although a machine learning-based fine-grained model achieved extremely high performance in prediction accuracy, a possibility of the risk of overfitting for such a model has been reported. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm for RNA secondary structure prediction that integrates the thermodynamic approach and the machine learning-based weighted approach. Our fine-grained model combines the experimentally determined thermodynamic parameters with a large number of scoring parameters for detailed contexts of features that are trained by the structured support vector machine (SSVM) with the [Formula: see text] regularization to avoid overfitting. Our benchmark shows that our algorithm achieves the best prediction accuracy compared with existing methods, and heavy overfitting cannot be observed. The implementation of our algorithm is available at https://github.com/keio-bioinformatics/mxfold .

scholarly journals Speeding up simultaneous alignment and folding of RNA sequences

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mária Šimalová ◽  
Gabriela Andrejková
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Structure ◽  
Structure Prediction ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure ◽  
Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Rna Sequences ◽  
Multiple Sequence ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Folding Algorithm ◽  
Alignment Problem

AbstractIn the paper, we describe and develop more effective solutions of two important problems in bioinformatics. The first problem is the multiple sequence alignment problem and the second problem is RNA secondary structure prediction (folding) problem. Each of these problems should be solved with better results if we know the solution of the other one, but usually we only have sequences and we know neither the alignment nor the secondary structure. Precise algorithms solving both of these problems simultaneously are computationally pretentious according to the big length of RNA sequences. In this paper, we have described the method of speeding up the Sankoff’s simultaneous alignment and folding algorithm using the Carrillo-Lipman approach to cut off those computations, that can never lead to an optimal solution.

scholarly journals Mathematical and Biological Modelling of RNA Secondary Structure and Its Effects on Gene Expression

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. A. Hughes ◽  
J. N. McElwaine
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Free Energy ◽  
Secondary Structure ◽  
Structure Prediction ◽  
Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Secondary Structures ◽  
Minimum Free Energy ◽  
Messenger Rnas ◽  
Rna Sequences ◽  
Translational Machinery

Secondary structures within the 5′ untranslated regions of messenger RNAs can have profound effects on the efficiency of translation of their messages and thereby on gene expression. Consequently they can act as important regulatory motifs in both physiological and pathological settings. Current approaches to predicting the secondary structure of these RNA sequences find the structure with the global-minimum free energy. However, since RNA folds progressively from the 5′ end when synthesised or released from the translational machinery, this may not be the most probable structure. We discuss secondary structure prediction based on local-minimisation of free energy with thermodynamic fluctuations as nucleotides are added to the 3′ end and show that these can result in different secondary structures. We also discuss approaches for studying the extent of the translational inhibition specified by structures within the 5′ untranslated region.

Statistical Mechanical Prediction of Ligand Perturbation to RNA Secondary Structure and Application to the SAM-I Riboswitch

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osama Alaidi ◽  
Fareed Aboul-ela
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Structure ◽  
Ligand Binding ◽  
Rna Structure ◽  
Structure Prediction ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure ◽  
Rna Folding ◽  
Tertiary Structure ◽  
Secondary Structure Prediction ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Statistical Mechanical

ABSTRACTThe realization that non protein-coding RNA (ncRNA) is implicated in an increasing number of cellular processes, many related to human disease, makes it imperative to understand and predict RNA folding. RNA secondary structure prediction is more tractable than tertiary structure or protein structure. Yet insights into RNA structure-function relationships are complicated by coupling between RNA folding and ligand binding. Here, we introduce a simple statistical mechanical formalism to calculate perturbations to equilibrium secondary structure conformational distributions for RNA, in the presence of bound cognate ligands. For the first time, this formalism incorporates a key factor in coupling ligand binding to RNA conformation: the differential affinity of the ligand for a range of RNA-folding intermediates. We apply the approach to the SAM-I riboswitch, for which binding data is available for analogs of intermediate secondary structure conformers. Calculations of equilibrium secondary structure distributions during the transcriptional “decision window” predict subtle shifts due to the ligand, rather than an on/off switch. The results suggest how ligand perturbation can release a kinetic block to the formation of a terminator hairpin in the full-length riboswitch. Such predictions identify aspects of folding that are most affected by ligand binding, and can readily be compared with experiment.

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