Fig. 1: Expression of Rab7a in melanoma versus non-melanoma cancer cells, correlation with TPC2 expression, and interaction of Rab7a with TPC2.

a Gene expression profile (qPCR) of Rab7a in human melanoma lines compared to different non-melanoma cancer lines. Error bars represent mean values ± SEM. Data points represent biological replicates. b Protein levels corroborating mRNA expression data in melanoma lines (compared to the breast cancer line MDA-MB-231). Shown are biological replicates, each. c Gene expression profile (qPCR) of Rab7b in human melanoma lines compared to different non-melanoma cancer lines. Data points show biological replicates. Error bars represent mean values ± SEM. Data points represent biological replicates. d Melanoma lines showing strong expression correlation between Rab7a and TPC2 but not TPC1. e Gene expression profile (qPCR) showing relative expression of TPCs in human melanoma lines compared to different non-melanoma cancer lines. Error bars represent mean values ± SEM. Data points represent biological replicates. f Representative images of sections from healthy lymphnode (female, abdomen) and melanoma lymphnode metastasis (male, left forefoot) samples stained with hRab7 antibody (IHC). Scale bars = 5 mm. g IHC evaluation was carried out considering the percentage of stained tumor cells. Statistical significance was assessed by two-tailed unpaired t-test, *p = 0.0126 (mean ± SD, n = 10, each). One dot corresponds to one independent human donor. h, i FRET experiments showing FRET efficiencies in HEK293 cells expressing hTPC2^WT or hTPC1^WT with hRab7a^WT (n = 163 and 60 biological replicates, respectively, error bars are SEM). Source data are provided as Source Data file.