Fig. 1

Upregulation of circLONP2 in metastasis-initiating subgroups of CRC. a Brief sketch map for the Transwell screening method. b In vivo tail vein injection model to verify the metastatic potential of different CRC subgroups by IVIS. c All 24 differentially expressed circRNAs in CRC subgroups exhibited by heat map. d Detection of circLONP2 in screening cohort by RT-qPCR (n = 45), normalized to GAPDH. e Sketch map for circLONP2. f Sanger sequencing to confirm the specific back splicing site of circLONP2. g-i RNase-R and actinomycin D treatment, and RT-qPCR using oligo dT primer to confirm the circular characteristics of circLONP2, normalized to GAPDH. j RNA FISH showing the predominant nuclear distribution of circLONP2 in HCT116. IVIS, in vivo imaging system. All experiments were repeated for at least three times, data were shown as mean ± SD, * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001 in independent Student’s t test (b), Mann-Whitney U test (d), or two-way ANOVA (h)