SMC Phenotype Regulation
Gene co-expression module in Smooth muscle cells
| Category | Development |
|---|---|
| Genes | 14 |
| Annotation certainty | 2 of 5 |
| Annotation consistency | 8 of 14 genes have a known function matching the annotation |
Why this annotation
Low-expression (19.5% detection), uniformly distributed module lacking any dominant cell-type marker set. Hubs are transcriptional/chromatin regulators (SOX5, ZBTB10, TRNP1, TAF7) combined with membrane/lipid-trafficking and phosphoinositide genes (EFR3A, INPP5A, OSBPL1A, HACD4, VPS13D, FAM20B) and smooth-muscle signaling regulators (ARHGAP42, a SMC-enriched RhoGAP controlling myogenic tone, and BMPR2, a BMP/TGF-beta superfamily receptor governing SMC phenotype). There is no contractile, inflammatory, or ECM signature, so this reads as a low-abundance regulatory program governing SMC differentiation state/signaling rather than an effector program. It is a topological neighbor of the contractile module M18, consistent with an upstream regulatory layer (BMPR2/SOX5/ARHGAP42) that co-varies with contractile gene output; the pairing supports a phenotype-modulation interpretation rather than contamination.
Genes
ARHGAP42, BMPR2, CTXN1, EFR3A, FAM20B, HACD4, INPP5A, OSBPL1A, RCSD1, SOX5, TAF7, TRNP1, VPS13D, ZBTB10
Most correlated modules
- Costameric cytoskeleton · correlation 0.84
- Generic maintenance transcripts · correlation 0.83
- Lysosomal-secretory processing · correlation 0.82
- Post-translational regulators · correlation 0.74
- Actin remodeling · correlation 0.74
- Wnt-Hedgehog Niche · correlation 0.62
- Adhesion Activation · correlation 0.59
- Fibroblast Matrisome · correlation 0.59
Module annotations were drafted by a large language model from the module's genes, then reviewed and approved by a domain expert. See sources & licences.