Fig. 3

Transcriptome profiles reveal higher expression for thousands of genes and an increase of RNA editing events. a Mesothelial tissue collection by exposure of parietal mesothelium and scraping the surface with a scalpel. b Heatmap of differentially expressed genes in the two comparisons crocidolite vs. sham and crocidolite tumors vs. crocidolite. The color bars at the left indicate upregulation (orange) and downregulation (violet). The crocidolite vs. sham comparison is dominated by genes upregulated in the crocidolite condition. c Overlap of the differentially expressed genes (two-fold change, p < 0.01) in both comparisons visualized as a Venn diagram. There is a substantial overlap that originates from the fact that about 40% of the genes that are upregulated in the crocidolite condition, show an even higher expression in the crocidolite tumor tissue. d Number of detected single nucleotide variations (SNV) in RNA-seq reads. e An increase of A to G transitions is the major cause of the increased number of SNVs in crocidolite-exposed tissues. Please note the reads are strand specific and the reverse complement transition (T to C) is not increased. f The proportion of A to G mutations that coincide with known A to I RNA-editing sites increases also in the crocidolite-exposed tissues