Effect of MOB2 knockout and overexpression on the expression of MOB1 and LATS1 in SMMC-7721 cells. (A) The levels of pMOB1, MOB1, pY1079LATS1, pS909LATS1 and LATS1 protein expression were determined in SMMC-7721 cells that stably express MOB2, MOB2-knocked out cells and the corresponding vector controls by western blotting. GAPDH served as the loading control (n=3). The fold expression of (B) pMOB1 relative to total MOB1, and (C) pY1079LATS1 and pS909LATS1 relative to total LATS1 as determined by densitometric analysis. Data are presented as the mean ± standard deviation of three independent experiments. *P<0.05 vs. the corresponding vector control. MOB1, monopolar spindle-one-binder protein 1; MOB2, monopolar spindle-one-binder protein 2; LATS1, large tumor suppressor kinase 1; p-, phosphorylated; LV-C, control lentivirus; LV-sgMOB2, MOB2-knockout cells; LV-MOB2, MOB2-overexpressing cells; sgRNA, single-guide RNA.