Fig. 2: Direct visualization of quiescent Prom1⁺ cells in the brain tumor of mice.

a Electroporation of cells in the SVZ of P2 CD1 mice with pPB-CAG-TPR-MET-ires-mCherry and pPB-CAG-p53^R273C-ires-mCherry (TP-Cherry) together with pPB-mProm1-mVenus-p27K⁻ (Prom1-Venus-p27). Mice were sacrificed at humane endpoint. b Survival curve (p = 0.0001) of mice injected with only TPR-MET (n = 7 mice, black line) or both TPR-MET and p53^R273C (n = 7 mice, blue line). c Mosaic images of brain sections showing Prom1-Venus-p27 expressing cells within the tumor (mCherry⁺) (n = 10 mice). d, e Images (d) and quantifications (e) of mVenus⁺ cells (green) not expressing Ki67 (red) in the core and edge/infiltrative regions of the mCherry⁺ tumors expressing Prom1-Venus-p27 (n = 4 mice, 4818 cells). Each dot represents a brain section. f, g Images (f) and quantifications (g) of mVenus⁺ cells (green) labeled with EdU (red) (n = 2 mice, 429 cells). Cells in the SVZ of P2 CD1 mice were electroporated with pPB-CAG-TPR-MET-ires-mCherry and pPB-CAG-p53^R273C-ires-mCherry (TP-Cherry) together with pPB-mProm1-mVenus-p27K⁻ (Prom1-Venus-p27). Mice were injected with EdU at P44 and brains were dissected at P45. h, i Images (h) and quantifications (i) of mVenus⁺ cells (green) expressing SOX2 (red) in the core and edge/infiltrative regions of the mCherry⁺ tumors expressing Prom1-Venus-p27 (n = 3 mice, 1966 cells). j, k Images (j) and quantifications (k) of mVenus⁺ cells (green) expressing OLIG2 (red) in the core and edge/infiltrative regions of the mCherry⁺ tumors expressing Prom1-Venus-p27 (for core n = 4 mice, 3753 cells; for infiltrating edge n = 4 mice, 1104 cells). l Images of mVenus⁺ cells (green) co-expressing N-cadherin (gray) in the core or edge/infiltrative areas of the mCherry⁺ tumors (red) expressing Prom1-Venus-p27 (n = 6 mice). N-cadherin expression level is shown as multi-colored LUT fire. Asterisks refer to Venus-p27 expressing cells. Scale bars (c) 2 mm, (d, f, h, j, l) 100 μm, (l, ROI) 50 μm, (j, ROI) 40 μm. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. P values are calculated by unpaired two-tailed non-parametric Mann–Whitney test (k). Kaplan–Meier survival curve followed by Log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test was used for testing difference in the survival of mice (b). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.