A High-Resolution Stereo-Seq Spatial Transcriptomic Resource for Adult Holstein Cattle Liver.

Abstract

The bovine liver is a highly compartmentalized organ that plays essential roles in continuous gluconeogenesis and nitrogen recycling; however, its spatial molecular architecture has remained largely uncharacterized due to the limitations of traditional bulk and single-cell approaches. To address this gap, Spatial Enhanced Resolution Omics-sequencing (Stereo-seq) was utilized to generate a subcellular-resolution (500 nm) transcriptomic map of an adult Holstein cattle liver, and a refined reference-guided workflow was implemented to overcome standard annotation limitations in livestock. Raw sequencing data were processed using the Stereo-seq Analysis Workflow and analyzed with Stereopy, Seurat, SingleR, and reference-guided workflows. Spatial aggregation was evaluated at Bin20, Bin50, Bin100, Bin150, and Bin200. Increasing bin size increased molecular identifier counts and detected-gene complexity while progressively reducing spatial granularity. Bin50, corresponding to 50 × 50 DNA nanoballs and an approximate nominal footprint of 25 × 25 µm, was therefore selected as a practical intermediate aggregation level for the primary analyses. Quality-control assessment, Leiden clustering, UMAP visualization, reference-based cell-type annotation, cluster-marker analysis, and spatial mapping of canonical hepatic genes demonstrated preservation of biologically interpretable liver transcriptional organization. Raw sequencing data processed spatial matrices, annotated objects, and analysis code are publicly available to support reanalysis and computational benchmarking. In summary, we present a Stereo-seq spatial transcriptomic resource generated from liver tissue of an adult Holstein cow. This initial resource provides a valuable foundation for future studies of bovine liver biology, comparative genomics, and the spatial basis of livestock health and production traits.