AutoFE-Pointer: Auto-weighted feature extractor based on pointer network for DNA methylation prediction

DNA methylation is a critical epigenetic modification that plays a central role in gene regulation, cellular differentiation, and the development of various diseases, including cancers. Aberrant methylation patterns have emerged as both biomarkers and mechanistic drivers in pathogenesis, underscoring the urgent need for precise and efficient predictive tools. Although some deep learning techniques have advanced methylation prediction, most existing models are trained independently on single-species datasets. This species-specific approach limits efficiency because each model can only handle one dataset at a time, often at the expense of predictive performance. Additionally, the state-of-the-art deep learning models tend to have enormous parameter counts and computational overhead, making them impractical for integration into local offline software applications. To overcome these challenges, we propose AutoFE-Pointer, a lightweight and novel framework that harnesses an improved softened pointer network to dynamically extract and weight features from diverse DNA sequences. AutoFE-Pointer is designed to simultaneously process 17 different benchmark datasets spanning multiple species, achieving superior performance compared to models that are trained individually on single-species data. In doing so, it not only offers state-of-the-art predictive accuracy and robust cross-species generalization but also significantly reduces computational demands, facilitating its deployment in local offline environments. This breakthrough represents a significant advancement in the field of epigenetic modeling and computational biology.