Fig. 1. Upregulated METTL3 is correlated with poor survival in ESCC patients.

a The expression levels (transcript per million) of METTL3 were analysed in ESCC tissues (n = 95) and their adjacent normal tissues (n = 11) in the TCGA cohort. Data represent the means ± SD of samples. ***p = 2.21E − 07 based on two-tailed Student’s t-test. The box boundaries correspond to first and third quartiles; whiskers extend to a maximum of 1.5× the interquartile range. b Representative images of IHC staining for METTL3 protein on a tissue microarray (TMA) composed of 81 ESCC tissues and their adjacent normal epithelium tissues. scale bars: 100 μm. c The protein expression level of METTL3 were analysed in 81 ESCC tissues and their paired normal epithelium tissues by IHC. **p = 0.0013. Two-tailed t-test in paired samples. The box boundaries correspond to the first and third quartiles; whiskers extend to a maximum of 1.5× the interquartile range. d Kaplan–Meier method with two-tailed log-rank test was used to plot survival curves in human ESCC specimens (n = 81) with high and low METTL3 expression. The log-rank test was used to compare survival rate. e Immunoblotting analyses of nine ESCC cell lines and Het-1-immortalized normal cells were performed with the indicated antibodies. METTL3 expression levels were quantified and normalized to tubulin expression levels. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.