TY - JOUR A1 - Stroup, Emily Kunce A1 - Ji, Zhe T1 - Delineating yeast cleavage and polyadenylation signals using deep learning Y1 - 2024/07/01 JF - Genome Research JO - Genome Research SP - 1066 EP - 1080 DO - 10.1101/gr.278606.123 VL - 34 IS - 7 UR - http://genome.cshlp.org/content/34/7/1066.abstract N2 - 3′-end cleavage and polyadenylation is an essential process for eukaryotic mRNA maturation. In yeast species, the polyadenylation signals that recruit the processing machinery are degenerate and remain poorly characterized compared with the well-defined regulatory elements in mammals. Here we address this issue by developing deep learning models to deconvolute degenerate cis-regulatory elements and quantify their positional importance in mediating yeast poly(A) site formation, cleavage heterogeneity, and strength. In S. cerevisiae, cleavage heterogeneity is promoted by the depletion of U-rich elements around poly(A) sites as well as multiple occurrences of upstream UA-rich elements. Sites with high cleavage heterogeneity show overall lower strength. The site strength and tandem site distances modulate alternative polyadenylation (APA) under the diauxic stress. Finally, we develop a deep learning model to reveal the distinct motif configuration of S. pombe poly(A) sites, which show more precise cleavage than S. cerevisiae. Altogether, our deep learning models provide unprecedented insights into poly(A) site formation of yeast species, and our results highlight divergent poly(A) signals across distantly related species. ER -