Fig. 1

PPI network and survival analysis identified TMEM17 as a CSC related gene. a PPI network of the nine colon stem cell markers. Node size is -log2 transformed averaged P-values in 1000 randomization log-rank tests. Node color represents the frequency calculated by the number of times that the corresponding gene significantly associated with survival in the same analysis. Nodes with labels represent key genes related to CSC (frequency > 500). Edges represent physical PPIs between proteins obtained from BioGRID database. b The significant frequency of 11 CSC related genes in survival analysis (log-rank test, P < 0.05; frequency > 500). c TMEM17 expression is significantly higher in CRC samples than that in paired normal colon tissue (P = 0.002). d, e Kaplan–Meier survival analysis revealed that high TMEM17 expression was significantly correlated with tumor recurrence (d) and short overall survival (e)