Can Deep Learning Improve Genomic Prediction of Complex Human Traits?

The genetic analysis of complex traits does not escape the current excitement around artificial intelligence, including a renewed interest in "deep learning" (DL) techniques such as Multilayer Perceptrons (MLPs) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). However, the performance of DL for genomic pre...

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Published in:Genetics Vol. 210; no. 3; pp. 809 - 820
Main Authors: Bellot, Pau, de los Campos, Gustavo, Pérez-Enciso, Miguel
Format: Journal Article
Published: Oxford University Press / USA Nov2018
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Nov2018
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      pub: Oxford University Press / USA
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        10.1534/genetics.118.301298
        132894979
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        atl: Can Deep Learning Improve Genomic Prediction of Complex Human Traits?
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          Bellot, Pau
          de los Campos, Gustavo
          Pérez-Enciso, Miguel
        affil: Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) - Institut de Recerca i Tecnologies Agroalimentaries (IRTA) - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) - Universitat de Barcelona (UB) Consortium, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
      sug:
        subj:
          Genome, Human Evaluation
          Artificial Intelligence
          Neural Networks (Computer)
          Phenotype
          Bone Density
          Body Mass Index
          Systolic Pressure
          Waist-Hip Ratio
          Algorithms
          Linear Regression
          Human
      ab: The genetic analysis of complex traits does not escape the current excitement around artificial intelligence, including a renewed interest in "deep learning" (DL) techniques such as Multilayer Perceptrons (MLPs) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). However, the performance of DL for genomic prediction of complex human traits has not been comprehensively tested. To provide an evaluation of MLPs and CNNs, we used data from distantly related white Caucasian individuals (n ~100k individuals, m ~500k SNPs, and k = 1000) of the interim release of the UK Biobank. We analyzed a total of five phenotypes: height, bone heel mineral density, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, and waist--hip ratio, with genomic heritabilities ranging from ~0.20 to 0.70. After hyperparameter optimization using a genetic algorithm, we considered several configurations, from shallow to deep learners, and compared the predictive performance of MLPs and CNNs with that of Bayesian linear regressions across sets of SNPs (from 10k to 50k) that were preselected using single-marker regression analyses. For height, a highly heritable phenotype, all methods performed similarly, although CNNs were slightly but consistently worse. For the rest of the phenotypes, the performance of some CNNs was comparable or slightly better than linear methods. Performance of MLPs was highly dependent on SNP set and phenotype. In all, over the range of traits evaluated in this study, CNN performance was competitive to linear models, but we did not find any case where DL outperformed the linear model by a sizable margin. We suggest that more research is needed to adapt CNN methodology, originally motivated by image analysis, to genetic-based problems in order for CNNs to be competitive with linear models.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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