# Fine-Grained Zero-Shot Learning with DNA as Side Information

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.14133 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.14133/

## Key facts

- Cited by 20 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 30 of its 55 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Sep 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 30)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04805/) (2018)
- [Efficient Estimation of Word Representations in Vector Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1301.3781/) (2013)
- [Learning to Compare: Relation Network for Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.06025/) (2017)
- [Zero-Shot Learning -- A Comprehensive Evaluation of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.00600/) (2017)
- [Feature Generating Networks for Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.00981/) (2017)
- [Zero-Shot Learning Through Cross-Modal Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1301.3666/) (2013)
- [Generalized Zero- and Few-Shot Learning via Aligned Variational Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.01784/) (2018)
- [Evaluation of Output Embeddings for Fine-Grained Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.8403/) (2014)
- [Label-Embedding for Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.08677/) (2015)
- [Learning a Deep Embedding Model for Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.05088/) (2016)
- [Zero-Shot Learning by Convex Combination of Semantic Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1312.5650/) (2013)
- [Latent Embeddings for Zero-shot Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.08895/) (2016)
- [Generalized Zero-Shot Learning via Synthesized Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.03878/) (2017)
- [Synthesized Classifiers for Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.00550/) (2016)
- [Multi-modal Cycle-consistent Generalized Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.00136/) (2018)
- [Leveraging the Invariant Side of Generative Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.04092/) (2019)
- [Zero-Shot Learning via Semantic Similarity Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1509.04767/) (2015)
- [Zero-Shot Visual Recognition using Semantics-Preserving Adversarial Embedding Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.01928/) (2017)
- [Predicting Deep Zero-Shot Convolutional Neural Networks using Textual Descriptions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.00511/) (2015)
- [A Generative Model For Zero Shot Learning Using Conditional Variational Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.00663/) (2017)
- [Transferable Contrastive Network for Generalized Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.05832/) (2019)
- [Leveraging Seen and Unseen Semantic Relationships for Generative Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.09549/) (2020)
- [Ridge Regression, Hubness, and Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1507.00825/) (2015)
- [Less is more: zero-shot learning from online textual documents with noise suppression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.01146/) (2016)
- [Learning Feature-to-Feature Translator by Alternating Back-Propagation for Generative Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.10056/) (2019)
- [Gaze Embeddings for Zero-Shot Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.09309/) (2016)
- [From Zero-shot Learning to Conventional Supervised Classification: Unseen Visual Data Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.01782/) (2017)
- [dna2vec: Consistent vector representations of variable-length k-mers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1701.06279/) (2017)
- [Bayesian Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.09624/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [A Step Towards Worldwide Biodiversity Assessment: The BIOSCAN-1M Insect Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10455/) (2023)
- [Insect-Foundation: A Foundation Model and Large-scale 1M Dataset for Visual Insect Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15206/) (2023)
- [TransZero++: Cross Attribute-Guided Transformer for Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.08643/) (2021)
- [BIOSCAN-5M: A Multimodal Dataset for Insect Biodiversity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.12723/) (2024)
- [CLIBD: Bridging Vision and Genomics for Biodiversity Monitoring at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17537/) (2024)
- [CREST: Cross-modal Resonance through Evidential Deep Learning for Enhanced Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09640/) (2024)
- [Insect-Foundation: A Foundation Model and Large Multimodal Dataset for Vision-Language Insect Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09906/) (2025)
- [GenZSL: Generative Zero-Shot Learning Via Inductive Variational Autoencoder](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.11882/) (2025)
- [Exploring Meta Information for Audio-based Zero-shot Bird Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.08398/) (2023)
- [BarcodeMamba: State Space Models for Biodiversity Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.11084/) (2024)
- [An Integral Projection-based Semantic Autoencoder for Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14628/) (2023)
- [Synthesizing Knowledge-enhanced Features for Real-world Zero-shot Food Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.09242/) (2024)
- [GeneMask: Fast Pretraining of Gene Sequences to Enable Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15933/) (2023)
- [Unlocking Efficiency: Adaptive Masking for Gene Transformer Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.07180/) (2024)
- [BarcodeBERT: Transformers for Biodiversity Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.02401/) (2023)
- [BarcodeMamba+: Advancing State-Space Models for Fungal Biodiversity Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.15931/) (2025)
- [RevUp: Revise and Update Information Bottleneck for Event Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.12248/) (2022)
- [Recognition of Unseen Bird Species by Learning from Field Guides](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.01466/) (2022)
- [Taxonomy and evolution predicting using deep learning in images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.14011/) (2022)
- [AquaMonitor: A multimodal multi-view image sequence dataset for real-life aquatic invertebrate biodiversity monitoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.22065/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Fine-grained zero-shot learning task requires some form of side-information to transfer discriminative information from seen to unseen classes. As manually annotated visual attributes are extremely costly and often impractical to obtain for a large number of classes, in this study we use DNA as side information for the first time for fine-grained zero-shot classification of species. Mitochondrial DNA plays an important role as a genetic marker in evolutionary biology and has been used to achieve near-perfect accuracy in the species classification of living organisms. We implement a simple hierarchical Bayesian model that uses DNA information to establish the hierarchy in the image space and employs local priors to define surrogate classes for unseen ones. On the benchmark CUB dataset, we show that DNA can be equally promising yet in general a more accessible alternative than word vectors as a side information. This is especially important as obtaining robust word representations for fine-grained species names is not a practicable goal when information about these species in free-form text is limited. On a newly compiled fine-grained insect dataset that uses DNA information from over a thousand species, we show that the Bayesian approach outperforms state-of-the-art by a wide margin.