Fair splits flip the leaderboard: CHANRG reveals limited generalization in RNA secondary-structure prediction

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Chen, Zhiyuan, Deng, Zhenfeng, Deng, Pan, Liao, Yue, Su, Xiu, Ye, Peng, Liu, Xihui
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Chen, Zhiyuan
Deng, Zhenfeng
Deng, Pan
Liao, Yue
Su, Xiu
Ye, Peng
Liu, Xihui
author_facet Chen, Zhiyuan
Deng, Zhenfeng
Deng, Pan
Liao, Yue
Su, Xiu
Ye, Peng
Liu, Xihui
contents Accurate prediction of RNA secondary structure underpins transcriptome annotation, mechanistic analysis of non-coding RNAs, and RNA therapeutic design. Recent gains from deep learning and RNA foundation models are difficult to interpret because current benchmarks may overestimate generalization across RNA families. We present the Comprehensive Hierarchical Annotation of Non-coding RNA Groups (CHANRG), a benchmark of 170{,}083 structurally non-redundant RNAs curated from more than 10 million sequences in Rfam~15.0 using structure-aware deduplication, genome-aware split design and multiscale structural evaluation. Across 29 predictors, foundation-model methods achieved the highest held-out accuracy but lost most of that advantage out of distribution, whereas structured decoders and direct neural predictors remained markedly more robust. This gap persisted after controlling for sequence length and reflected both loss of structural coverage and incorrect higher-order wiring. Together, CHANRG and a padding-free, symmetry-aware evaluation stack provide a stricter and batch-invariant framework for developing RNA structure predictors with demonstrable out-of-distribution robustness.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_22330
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fair splits flip the leaderboard: CHANRG reveals limited generalization in RNA secondary-structure prediction
Chen, Zhiyuan
Deng, Zhenfeng
Deng, Pan
Liao, Yue
Su, Xiu
Ye, Peng
Liu, Xihui
Biomolecules
Machine Learning
Accurate prediction of RNA secondary structure underpins transcriptome annotation, mechanistic analysis of non-coding RNAs, and RNA therapeutic design. Recent gains from deep learning and RNA foundation models are difficult to interpret because current benchmarks may overestimate generalization across RNA families. We present the Comprehensive Hierarchical Annotation of Non-coding RNA Groups (CHANRG), a benchmark of 170{,}083 structurally non-redundant RNAs curated from more than 10 million sequences in Rfam~15.0 using structure-aware deduplication, genome-aware split design and multiscale structural evaluation. Across 29 predictors, foundation-model methods achieved the highest held-out accuracy but lost most of that advantage out of distribution, whereas structured decoders and direct neural predictors remained markedly more robust. This gap persisted after controlling for sequence length and reflected both loss of structural coverage and incorrect higher-order wiring. Together, CHANRG and a padding-free, symmetry-aware evaluation stack provide a stricter and batch-invariant framework for developing RNA structure predictors with demonstrable out-of-distribution robustness.
title Fair splits flip the leaderboard: CHANRG reveals limited generalization in RNA secondary-structure prediction
topic Biomolecules
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22330