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Hauptverfasser: Sapkota, Ganesh, Rahman, Md Hasibur
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18570
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author Sapkota, Ganesh
Rahman, Md Hasibur
author_facet Sapkota, Ganesh
Rahman, Md Hasibur
contents This paper presents a novel hybrid tokenization strategy that enhances the performance of DNA Language Models (DLMs) by combining 6-mer tokenization with Byte Pair Encoding (BPE-600). Traditional k-mer tokenization is effective at capturing local DNA sequence structures but often faces challenges, including uneven token distribution and a limited understanding of global sequence context. To address these limitations, we propose merging unique 6mer tokens with optimally selected BPE tokens generated through 600 BPE cycles. This hybrid approach ensures a balanced and context-aware vocabulary, enabling the model to capture both short and long patterns within DNA sequences simultaneously. A foundational DLM trained on this hybrid vocabulary was evaluated using next-k-mer prediction as a fine-tuning task, demonstrating significantly improved performance. The model achieved prediction accuracies of 10.78% for 3-mers, 10.1% for 4-mers, and 4.12% for 5-mers, outperforming state-of-the-art models such as NT, DNABERT2, and GROVER. These results highlight the ability of the hybrid tokenization strategy to preserve both the local sequence structure and global contextual information in DNA modeling. This work underscores the importance of advanced tokenization methods in genomic language modeling and lays a robust foundation for future applications in downstream DNA sequence analysis and biological research.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_18570
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Hybrid Tokenization Strategy for DNA Language Model using Byte Pair Encoding and K-MER Methods
Sapkota, Ganesh
Rahman, Md Hasibur
Computation and Language
This paper presents a novel hybrid tokenization strategy that enhances the performance of DNA Language Models (DLMs) by combining 6-mer tokenization with Byte Pair Encoding (BPE-600). Traditional k-mer tokenization is effective at capturing local DNA sequence structures but often faces challenges, including uneven token distribution and a limited understanding of global sequence context. To address these limitations, we propose merging unique 6mer tokens with optimally selected BPE tokens generated through 600 BPE cycles. This hybrid approach ensures a balanced and context-aware vocabulary, enabling the model to capture both short and long patterns within DNA sequences simultaneously. A foundational DLM trained on this hybrid vocabulary was evaluated using next-k-mer prediction as a fine-tuning task, demonstrating significantly improved performance. The model achieved prediction accuracies of 10.78% for 3-mers, 10.1% for 4-mers, and 4.12% for 5-mers, outperforming state-of-the-art models such as NT, DNABERT2, and GROVER. These results highlight the ability of the hybrid tokenization strategy to preserve both the local sequence structure and global contextual information in DNA modeling. This work underscores the importance of advanced tokenization methods in genomic language modeling and lays a robust foundation for future applications in downstream DNA sequence analysis and biological research.
title Hybrid Tokenization Strategy for DNA Language Model using Byte Pair Encoding and K-MER Methods
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18570