Fig 2: Validation of the role of YTHDC1 in regulating stemness maintenance at the single cell level. (a) The UMAP plot of scRNA-seq cell data labeled by cell type. (b) The UMAP plot of the YTHDC1 expression in all the clusters. (c) The UMAP plot of cancer cells from HNSCC tissues shows the YTHDC1 expression pattern. (d) The Pearson correlation between YTHDC1 and SOX2 mRNA expression according to the single cell RNA data. (e) The Pearson correlation between YTHDC1 and BMI1 mRNA expression according to the single cell RNA data. (f) Volcano plot shows differentially expressed genes between YTHDC1 high and YTHDC1 low cells. (g) GO analysis of the upregulated genes in the YTHDC1 high expression cell population. (h) KEGG analysis of the upregulated genes in the YTHDC1 high expression cell population. (i) Violin plot depicts the expression of stem cell-related markers of YTHDC1 high and YTHDC1 low cells.

Fig 3: YTHDC1 was overexpressed in HNSCC patients. (a) Representative graph of YTHDC1 staining in tumor and normal tissues of HNSCC patients (left) and the IHC score quantification (right) (n = 6). Scale bar, 100 μm. (b) The YTHDC1 expression in patients HNSCC tissues and normal tissues detected by immunoblotting analysis (n = 3). (c) The SOX2 and BMI1 protein expression in patient HNSCC tissues and normal tissues detected by immunoblotting analysis (n = 3).

Fig 4: YTHDC1 aberrantly expressed in HNSCC and was associated with cancer cell stemness. (a) The relative mRNA expression of YTHDC1 in tumor and normal tissues in HNSCC in TCGA database. The comparison of the YTHDC1 mRNA expression in (b) individual tumor grades, (c) HPV infection status, and (d) different nodal metastasis status. (e) The Pearson correlation between YTHDC1 and SOX2 mRNA expression in HNSCC according to TCGA data. (f) The Pearson correlation between YTHDC1 and BMI1 mRNA expression in HNSCC according to the TCGA data.