Fig. 2: Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of MRPL17 expression, associations, and co-expression networks in lung cancer. | Cell Death & Disease

Fig. 2: Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of MRPL17 expression, associations, and co-expression networks in lung cancer.

From: MRPL17 is a critical regulator of mitochondrial function and a novel therapeutic target in non-small cell lung cancer

Fig. 2

Dimensionality reduction plots depict cellular composition and integrated scRNA-seq data from lung cancer samples, with annotated cell populations (A) and displayed data sources (B). An expression density plot maps MRPL17 distribution across cell types (C), showing predominant expression in malignant cancer cells and ciliated cells, with higher expression in both LUSC and LUAD (D). Cancer cell populations were sub-clustered to characterize heterogeneity (E), revealing MRPL17’s higher expression within the proliferating sub-cluster (F). Correlation analysis identified top 100 genes positively co-expressed (COR) with MRPL17 in NSCLC cancer cell subpopulations (G). Functional and pathway enrichment analyses of these genes indicated enrichment in translation, cellular respiration, actin-mediated cell motility (H), and eukaryotic translation, selenocysteine synthesis, and SLIT-ROBO pathways (I). Comprehensive analysis using TCGA-NSCLC bulk RNA-seq data, intersected with MitoCarta3.0 and scRNA co-expressed genes in cancer cell subpopulation, identified COX8A as a common mitochondrial gene (J). The co-expression of MRPL17 and COX8A was validated using independent TCGA data (K).

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