spAttClu: a spatial domain clustering model leveraging spatially weighted graph attention and contrastive learning.

motivationThe rapid growth of spatial transcriptomics data holds potential for deep understanding of spatial specificity and tissue heterogeneity. Recognizing spatial domains is a fundamental step for deciphering tissue functional architecture and dissecting tissue heterogeneity. However, existing models typically define adjacency relations using static weights, which cannot dynamically adjust neighbor importance based on expression context, thereby limiting the accuracy and robustness of spatial domain recognition.

resultsWe propose spAttClu, a clustering model integrating spatially weighted graph attention with contrastive learning. It adaptively learns neighbor contributions in varying contexts through a distance-weighted graph attention mechanism and enhances embedding discriminability via multi-level contrastive learning. spAttClu demonstrates superior clustering performance on the DLPFC dataset. Moreover, it shows cross-platform adaptability and enables vertical/horizontal inte-gration of multiple tissue slices.