Key result
Tetralogy of Fallot associates with significant endothelial ciliary structural-assembly dysregulation across ~400 recurrent genes.
Why the study?
Although human genetics implicates ciliary loss-of-function in nonsyndromic tetralogy of Fallot risk, compartment-resolved ciliary transcriptional programmes in public TOF snRNA-seq datasets remained unmapped at module resolution.
Meta-Analysis (n=8)
This integrative transcriptomic meta-analysis demonstrates that ciliary gene dysregulation in Tetralogy of Fallot is compartment-specific and module-structured, peaking in the endothelial M1 structural assembly module and providing a 24-gene endothelial anchor for future mechanistic studies.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Endothelial ciliary structural-assembly dysregulation in Tetralogy of Fallot merits targeted study; extends transcriptomic evidence but remains hypothesis-generating.
Background Primary cilia coordinate Hedgehog-dependent outflow tract morphogenesis. Concurrent human genetics implicates ciliary loss-of-function in nonsyndromic tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) risk, yet compartment-resolved ciliary transcriptional programmes in public TOF snRNA-seq remain unmapped at module resolution. Methods We curated a Cardiac Ciliary Transcriptomic Panel (CCTP; 1,611 genes; four modules) and executed a ten-phase integrative pipeline on six public sc/snRNA-seq resources. Differentially expressed gene tables were harmonised (adjusted p < 0.05; |log2FC| ≥ 0.5 where available), mapped to CCTP modules, and tiered by evidence strength. Patient-level pseudobulk (three TOF versus five donors), permutation-validated Compartment Dysregulation Index (CMDI), Cross-Species Concordance Score (CSCS), STRING protein–protein interaction analysis, and diffusion pseudotime on 17,290 Ho organoid cells were performed. Results Among 1,263 unique CCTP-associated hits, 396 genes recurred in at least two dataset tables (exploratory tier; Tier A endothelial anchor n = 24 from Zulibiya et al.). Only Zulibiya endothelial M1 structural-assembly CMDI exceeded a module-size-matched permutation null (p = 0.015). Patient-level pseudobulk returned zero false-discovery-rate-significant CCTP genes. CCTP-conditioned overlap with recent ciliary genetics was non-significant (Fisher p ≈ 0.13). Ho organoid pseudotime showed highest M1/M2 activity at day 8, declining toward day 21. Genome-wide CSCS classified 11 genes as fully conserved and 136 as partially conserved among scoreable orthologs. Conclusions Ciliary transcriptional correlates in TOF are compartment-specific and module-structured, with the strongest inferential signal in TOF endothelium (M1). CCTP-Atlas provides a reproducible, tiered prioritisation resource linking public TOF snRNA-seq, organoid maturation proxies, and partial cross-species patterns. Findings are hypothesis-generating and complement—but do not replicate—recent ciliary genetics evidence until expanded cohorts and functional validation are performed. Data availability Processed gene lists, manifests, and scripts: Zenodo deposit [DOI to be inserted after upload; see submission checklist]. Source datasets: GSE203274, GSE168464, GSE166462, GSE126128; Li et al. (2025) supplementary tables. This is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed.
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Tahir et al. (2026) conducted a meta-analysis in Tetralogy of Fallot (n=8). Tetralogy of Fallot ciliary transcriptional dysregulation (Cardiac Ciliary Transcriptomic Panel; 1,611 genes across M1-M4 modules) vs. Donor endothelium and module-size-matched label-permutation null models was evaluated on Compartment Dysregulation Index (CMDI) for M1 structural-assembly ciliary module in Tetralogy of Fallot endothelium (p=0.015). Ciliary transcriptional dysregulation in Tetralogy of Fallot showed a significant M1 structural-assembly Compartment Dysregulation Index in endothelium across 396 recurrent genes.
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