Fig. 6: FOXA1 is involved in the differentiation plasticity of SNAI1 knockout cells and its expression is regulated by SNAI1.

A Network analysis visualizing the interactions between significantly enriched biological processes in SNAI1-KOs (p-value < 0.005 and overlap coefficient ≥ 0.5). Each node represents one biological process, and the size of the node corresponds to the number of the constituting genes. The lines refer to the significantly connected processes. FOXA1 is involved in the highlighted processes. The color code indicates the normalized enrichment score. B Expression of FOXA1 in various human BRCA subtypes obtained from TCGA datasets (Basal n = 171, HER2 n = 78, Luminal A n = 499, Luminal B n = 197). The statistical significance is derived using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test (U test). C Scatter plot demonstrating the negative correlation between SNAI1 and FOXA1 expression in breast cancer samples obtained from TCGA datasets. D RT-qPCR analysis of FOXA1 in MDA-MB-231-WT and SNAI1-KOs. Values represent fold-change of mRNA expression normalized to GAPDH. Data are presented as mean values of three biological replicates ± SEM, each in technical triplicates and p-values are shown based on two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-test. E Representative immunoblot of three biological replicates along with molecular mass markers in kDa showing protein expression levels of FOXA1 in MCF-7, ZR-75-1, MDA-MB-231-WT and SNAI1-KOs. HP95 serves as loading control. A star indicates the specific protein band detected by the FOXA1 antibody. F Venn diagram showing the numbers of the significantly enriched annotated peaks obtained from SNAI1 ChIP-sequencing analysis in human colorectal cancer cells. p-values *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001.