Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41223223›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025

A unified framework for identification of cell-type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomic studies.

Zhiwei Wang, Yeqin Zeng, Ziyue Tan, Yuheng Chen, Xinrui Huang, Hongyu Zhao, Zhixiang Lin, Can Yang

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Zhiwei WangDepartment of Mathematics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.ORCID 0000-0001-7682-0070
Yeqin ZengDepartment of Mathematics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.ORCID 0009-0004-2003-5419
Ziyue TanDepartment of Mathematics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.ORCID 0009-0000-4919-7420
Yuheng ChenDepartment of Mathematics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.
Xinrui HuangDepartment of Mathematics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.
Hongyu ZhaoDepartment of Biostatistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511.ORCID 0000-0003-1195-9607
Zhixiang LinDepartment of Statistics and Data Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Can YangDepartment of Mathematics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.ORCID 0000-0002-4407-3055

Funding

Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) 4930181CUHK | Faculty of Science, Chinese University of Hong Kong () CRIMS 4620033Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) R9405Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Z0428Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) ITCPD/17-9Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee () 14300923Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee () 14301120Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee () 16301419Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee () 16302823Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee () 16307221Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee () 16307322Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee () 16308120Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee () 16309424Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee () C6021-19EF
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Characterizing cell-type-specific spatially variable genes (SVGs) within tissue context is essential for exploring the landscape of complex biological systems in spatial transcriptomic (ST) studies. In this paper, we present a unified framework, the Mixture of Mixed Models (MMM), designed to directly model RNA count data and identify cell-type-specific SVGs while accounting for cell type composition and correcting for platform effects. Through a comprehensive simulation study and the analyses of eight publicly available ST datasets from various tissues and technologies with different resolutions, we demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of MMM in identifying cell-type-specific SVGs. Notably, our integrative analysis with genome-wide association studies reveals that the cell-type-specific SVGs identified by MMM in a mouse brain study exhibit significant heritability enrichment in brain-related phenotypes. This finding suggests that cell-type-specific SVGs play a vital role in elucidating the mechanisms underlying complex traits and diseases. When applying MMM to analyze a high-resolution Xenium human breast cancer dataset by accounting for the uncertainties in cell segmentation, we find that certain cell-type-specific SVGs may contribute to cell-cell communications, thereby regulating the tissue microenvironment. Furthermore, we show the versatility of MMM by applying it to the 3D tissue models constructed from multiple ST slices, highlighting its utility in analyzing the 3D ST data.

Indexed as

Gene Expression ProfilingTranscriptomeAnimalsBrainBreast NeoplasmsFemaleGenome-Wide Association StudyHumansMicecomplex traits and diseasespenalized quasi-likelihoodspatially variable genestumor microenvironmentvariance component testing

Identifiers

PMID41223223
PMCPMC12646224

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.