Expressheart: Web portal to visualize transcriptome profiles of non-cardiomyocyte cells

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Li, G.
- College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Statistics and Operations Research
Luan, C.
- Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Biostatistics
Dong, Y.
- School of Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Xie, Y.
- School of Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Zentz, S.C.
- Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Biostatistics
Zelt, R.
- Information Technology Services, Department of Research Computing
Roach, J.
- Information Technology Services, Department of Research Computing
Liu, J.
- School of Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Qian, L.
- School of Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Li, Y.
- Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Biostatistics
Yang, Y.
- School of Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Abstract

Unveiling the molecular features in the heart is essential for the study of heart diseases. Non-cardiomyocytes (nonCMs) play critical roles in providing structural and mechanical support to the working myocardium. There is an increasing amount of single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data characterizing the transcriptomic profiles of nonCM cells. However, no tool allows researchers to easily access the information. Thus, in this study, we develop an open-access web portal, Express-Heart, to visualize scRNA-seq data of nonCMs from five laboratories encompassing three species. ExpressHeart enables comprehensive visualization of major cell types and subtypes in each study; visualizes gene expression in each cell type/subtype in various ways; and facilitates identifying cell-type-specific and species-specific marker genes. ExpressHeart also provides an interface to directly combine information across datasets, for example, generating lists of high confidence DEGs by taking the intersection across different datasets. Moreover, ExpressHeart performs comparisons across datasets. We show that some homolog genes (e.g., Mmp14 in mice and mmp14b in zebrafish) are expressed in different cell types between mice and zebrafish, suggesting different functions across species. We expect ExpressHeart to serve as a valuable portal for investigators, shedding light on the roles of genes on heart development in nonCM cells.

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