Comparative single-cell analysis of the adult heart and coronary vasculature

Saranya Balachandran, Jelena Pozojevic, Varun K.A. Sreenivasan, Malte Spielmann*

*Corresponding author for this work

Abstract

The structure and function of the circulatory system, including the heart, have undergone substantial changes with the vertebrate evolution. Although the basic function of the heart is to pump blood through the body, its size, shape, speed, regeneration capacity, etc. vary considerably across species. Here, we address the differences among vertebrate hearts using a single-cell transcriptomics approach. Published datasets of macaque (Macaca fascicularis), mouse, and zebrafish hearts were integrated and compared to the human heart as a reference. While the three mammalian hearts integrated well, the zebrafish heart showed very little overlap with the other species. Our analysis revealed a mouse-specific cell subpopulation of ventricular cardiomyocytes (CM), represented by strikingly different expression patterns of specific genes related to high-energy metabolism. Interestingly, the observed differences between mouse and human CM coincided with actual biological differences between the two species. Smooth muscle and endothelial cells (EC) exhibited species-specific differences in clustering and gene expression, respectively, which we attribute to the tissues selected for sequencing, given different focuses of the original studies. Finally, we compared human and zebrafish heart-specific fibroblasts (FB) and identified a distinctively high expression of genes associated with heart regeneration following injury in zebrafish. Together, our results show that integration of numerous datasets of different species and different sequencing technologies is feasible and that this approach can identify species-specific differences and similarities in the heart.

Original languageEnglish
JournalMammalian Genome
Volume34
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)276-284
Number of pages9
ISSN0938-8990
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 06.2023

Research Areas and Centers

  • Research Area: Medical Genetics

DFG Research Classification Scheme

  • 2.22-03 Human Genetics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Comparative single-cell analysis of the adult heart and coronary vasculature'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this