Fig. 1

MEX3A is highly expressed in CRCs and suppresses autophagy of CRC cells. a Copy number variations (CNVs) of the MEX3A gene in 1344 patients from the 19 CRC cohorts in online cBioPortal tool (http://www.cbioportal.org). b mRNA expression of MEX3A in 50 tumors (T) and paired adjacent normal tissues (N) in the TCGA CRC cohort. c Absolute quantification of copy numbers of MEX3A in 10 CRC tissues (T) and matched adjacent noncancerous tissues (N) from the SYSUCC. Y-axes showing the DNA molecules per PCR reaction. d Western blotting of MEX3A protein expression in 10 CRC tissues (T) and matched adjacent noncancerous tissues (N) from the SYSUCC. GAPDH was used as the loading control. e Left, representative IHC staining for MEX3A in normal samples (left) and CRCs (right). Scale bar, 100 μm. Right, quantified H-score of cytosolic MEX3A in CRC tissues (T) and noncancerous tissues (N). f Kaplan-Meier analysis of overall survival (OS) in CRC patients with low versus high MEX3A expression from SYSUCC cohorts (n = 88). g Western blotting for LC3 conversion and p62 expression in control or MEX3A-knockdown cells in the absence or presence of serum or Chloroquine (CQ). GAPDH was used as an internal control. h Detection of autophagic flux with the mRFP-GFP-LC3 reporter in indicated cells. Yellow puncta represent autophagosomes (mRFP+/GFP+), and red puncta represent autolysosomes (mRFP+/GFP−). Scale bar, 10 μm. i Representative transmission electron microscope (TEM) images of the autophagosomes and/or autolysosomes in indicated cells. Scale bar, 500 nm. Data are represented as mean ± S.D. (c, e), and the P value was determined by two-tailed paired Student’s t test (b, c) or two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test (e) or Log-rank test (f)