Fig. 4

RNA-binding proteins involved in circRNA biogenesis are downregulated in tumor tissue. A Volcano plot of the differential expression analysis of RBP gene levels between lesions and adjacent mucosa. Black border highlights the significant results, while labels highlight the 11 RBPs whose levels significantly correlated with the number of detected circRNAs. B Bar plot of the correlation between differentially expressed RBP gene levels and the number of detected circRNAs in each sample. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01. C Heatmap of the correlation between levels of RBP genes and those of the differentially expressed circRNAs. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. D Dot plot of the differential expression of RBP genes between lesion and adjacent mucosa stratified according to disease stage. Size is proportional to the analysis significance. On the right, the heatmap reports the results of the differential expression analysis (log2FC) computed using 10 independent public datasets. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. E Interaction network of circRNA-correlated RBPs. Node color reflects the log2FC from the differential expression analysis, while the link color identifies the type of supporting evidence