RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 DeepSTARR predicts enhancer activity from DNA sequence and enables the de novo design of enhancers JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2021.10.05.463203 DO 10.1101/2021.10.05.463203 A1 de Almeida, Bernardo P. A1 Reiter, Franziska A1 Pagani, Michaela A1 Stark, Alexander YR 2021 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/10/07/2021.10.05.463203.abstract AB Enhancer sequences control gene expression and comprise binding sites (motifs) for different transcription factors (TFs). Despite extensive genetic and computational studies, the relationship between DNA sequence and regulatory activity is poorly understood and enhancer de novo design is considered impossible. Here we built a deep learning model, DeepSTARR, to quantitatively predict the activities of thousands of developmental and housekeeping enhancers directly from DNA sequence in Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells. The model learned relevant TF motifs and higher-order syntax rules, including functionally non-equivalent instances of the same TF motif that are determined by motif-flanking sequence and inter-motif distances. We validated these rules experimentally and demonstrated their conservation in human by testing more than 40,000 wildtype and mutant Drosophila and human enhancers. Finally, we designed and functionally validated synthetic enhancers with desired activities de novo.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.