Biology subjects

Xin, B.

Publications and source records attributed to Xin, B..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

DeepD enables efficient genome modeling and controllable long-context sequence generation across domains of life

Genome foundation models hold great potential for advancing biological research, but modeling diverse complex genomes and generating controllable genome-scale sequences remain challenging. We present DeepD, a phylogeny-informed sparse mixture-of-experts model operating at single-nucleotide resolution over a 1-million-token context while reducing active computation. Pretrained on unselected whole-genome sequences across all domains of life, DeepD learns genic and intergenic sequence features and supports broad sequence-to-function prediction across species. DeepD performs well in human protein fitness and disease variants effect prediction, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, with particular strength in regulatory regions, such as promoter and transcription-factor binding sites. Expert routing captures exon-intron boundaries, transposable elements, and distal cis-regulatory elements. DeepD also generates experimentally validated core promoters with specified transcriptional strengths. Finally, the Context-Anchor-Body strategy enables generation of complete yeast chromosome sequences and megabase-scale Arabidopsis segments, preserving gene structure and order while introducing variations within natural ranges. Together, DeepD is an efficient genome foundation model that unifies accurate sequence-to-function prediction with controllable genome-scale generation, advancing predictive and generative design of complex genomes.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2026

Cross-Species Comparison of Topologically Associating Domains (TADs) in Cereals Reveals Their Role in Genome Stability During Evolution

Topologically associating domains (TADs) are essential structural and functional modules of the genome that play a crucial role in regulating gene expression. In this study, we systematically investigated the conservation and evolution of TADs in five closely related crops, including maize, sorghum, coix, foxtail millet and broomcorn millet. Our results show that 74% of TAD boundaries are conserved between two inbred maize lines, B73 and Mo17, and that approximately 50% or more of TAD boundaries are conserved across different crop species. TAD number remains relatively stable in the face of changes in genome size. However, the length of TADs varies depending on genome size. Furthermore, we found that large-scale transposable element expansion leads to TAD expansion, while chromosomal inversions lead to TAD fusion and the formation of new TAD boundaries. Frequent chromatin interactions between subgenome chromosomes occur after whole-genome duplication. Moreover, we also found that crossovers are enriched at TAD boundaries in maize, indicating the importance of TADs as a fundamental unit during species evolution. Overall, our study provides insights into the conservation and evolution of TADs in crop genomes and their roles in genome organization and function.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2025

A synthetic biology toolkit for interrogating plasmid-dependent methylotrophy and enhancing methanol-based biosynthesis of Bacillus methanolicus

Bacillus methanolicus represents a thermophilic methylotroph whose methanol utilization depends on plasmid-encoded genes. It serves as a unique model for deciphering plasmid-dependent methylotrophy and an ideal chassis for low-carbon biomanufacturing using CO2-derived C1 substrates. Despite its evolutionary uniqueness and industrial potential, the lack of synthetic biology tools has hindered both mechanistic understanding and strain engineering. Here, we present a comprehensive synthetic biology platform comprising a high-efficiency electroporation protocol, a CRISPR method enabling robust and multiplex genome editing, diverse neutral loci for gene integration and overexpression, and a cloud-based genome-scale metabolic model iBM822 for user-friendly biodesign. Leveraging this toolkit, we systematically dissected plasmid-dependent methylotrophy, host restriction-modification systems, and functional significance of the chromosomal methylotrophic genes through targeted deletion. To address plasmid loss-induced strain degeneration, we integrated the large endogenous plasmid pBM19 into the chromosome for stable and intact methylotrophic growth. Finally, by integrating metabolic modeling with CRISPR editing, we engineered L-arginine feedback regulation to achieve the first L-arginine biosynthesis from methanol. This study establishes a synthetic biology framework for B. methanolicus, promoting mechanistic exploration of methylotrophy and low-carbon biomanufacturing.

synthetic biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Platinum drug reprogramming of protein phosphorylation

Cisplatin is a DNA-targeting chemotherapeutic. Here we investigate how the cisplatin damaged gene loci are linked to specific protein-driven signalling pathways. Using forward chemical genetics methods, cisplatin damage to specific genes has been mapped in human lung cancer cells, a total of 16216 cisplatin-damaged genes (CDGs) with fold-enrichment > 1.5. Surprisingly, bioinformatics analysis demonstrates that cisplatin targets the majority of human protein kinase and phosphatase genes and involved in 300 core signalling pathways (-log p >4). The most associated key signalling pathways are sperm motility and protein kinase A. The highest related disease is cancer, and tissue toxicities related to CDGs are about hepato- and nephro- toxicities. Notably, cisplatin damaged 85% (440) of human protein kinase genes and 81% (110) of human protein phosphatase genes. This suggests that cisplatin acts as a multi-targeting protein-phosphorylation regulator, confirmed by a significant decrease in expression of a series of key protein kinase genes. These results reveal that cisplatin disrupts protein phosphorylation signalling genome-wide. Key points summarising the key messages of your articleA total of 16216 genes damaged by the clinical drug cisplatin in human lung cancer cells were identified using a forward chemical genetics method. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that cisplatin targets 85% of protein kinase and 81% of phosphatase genes. Cisplatin acts as a multi-targeting protein-phosphorylation regulator, disrupting protein phosphorylation signalling genome-wide. The disturbance of protein phosphorylation by cisplatin can be related to anticancer activity and tissue toxicities of the drug. These findings suggests novel strategies for rational design of next-generation anticancer metallodrugs involving specific targeting of protein phosphorylation.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Temporal Analyses of Postnatal Liver Development and Maturation by Single Cell Transcriptomics

Liver is the major metabolic organ, although its postnatal development and maturation are inadequately understood. We analyzed 52,834 single cell transcriptomes and identified 31 cell types or states in mouse livers at postnatal day 1, 3, 7, 21 and 56. We observed unexpectedly high levels of hepatocyte heterogeneity in the developing liver and progressive construction of the zonated metabolic functions from pericentral to periportal hepatocytes, which was orchestrated with development of sinusoid endothelial, stellate and Kupffer cells. Trajectory and gene regulatory analyses captured 36 transcription factors, including a circadian regulator Bhlhe40, in programming liver development. Remarkably, we identified a special group of macrophages enriched at day 7 with a hybrid phenotype of macrophages and endothelial cells, which may regulate sinusoidal construction and Treg cell function. This study provides a comprehensive atlas that covers all hepatic cell types instrumental for further dissection of liver development, metabolic functions and diseases. In BriefO_LISingle cell transcriptomics of all hepatic cell types in neonatal and adult livers C_LIO_LIConcerted development of zonated metabolic functions in hepatocytes and NPCs C_LIO_LITransient emergence of a distinct group of macrophages at postnatal day 7 C_LIO_LIHepatic cell-cell communications that program postnatal liver development C_LI

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Divide and Conquer: Real-time maximum likelihood fitting of multiple emitters for super-resolution localization microscopy

Multi-emitter localization has great potential for maximizing the imaging speed of super-resolution localization microscopy. However, the slow image analysis speed of reported multi-emitter localization algorithms limits their usage in mostly off-line image processing with small image size. Here we adopt the well-known divide and conquer strategy in computer science and present a fitting-based method called QC-STORM for fast multi-emitter localization. Using simulated and experimental data, we verify that QC-STORM is capable of providing real-time full image processing on raw images with 100 {micro}m x 100 {micro}m field of view and 10 ms exposure time, with comparable spatial resolution as the popular fitting-based ThunderSTORM and the up-to-date non-iterative WindSTORM. This study pushes the development and practical use of super-resolution localization microscopy in high-throughput or high-content imaging of cell-to-cell differences or discovering rare events in a large cell population.

biophysics↗