Fig 1: Signature gene lists of the co-DEGs in colon and rectum adenocarcinoma.The expression pattern of the co-upregulated a and co-downregulated b gene signatures was verified in the TCGA-COAD and TCGA-READ data sets, respectively. The significantly elevated expression of the major hub transcription factors, MYC and TCF3, were verified among COAD and READ tumors, respectively. MYC and TCF3 exhibited moderate protein expression. Higher levels of TCF3 shifted toward a better disease-free survival of the patients c–d. The upregulated levels of the hub kinases CSNK2A1, CDK1, CDK4, and GSK3B were also validated in COAD and READ Q7 tumors, but significant differences could be scored between low and high-expressing CRC patients e–h. The verification of the co-deregulated gene signatures was performed using GEPIA2 and HPA. The red boxes depict either colon (COAD) or rectum (READ) adenocarcinomas, termed as “T” (for tumor) in the x axis. Gray boxes depict the normal tissue samples used as controls (termed “N” in the x axis). The red stars denote statistical significance (p < 0.05), using the one-way ANOVA statistical test. GEPIA2 was also used for calculation of disease-free survival (Kaplan–Meier curves), using the Log-rank test and median values as cutoff. The cox proportional hazard ratio and the 95% confidence interval (dotted lines) are included in the survival plots. IHC images from tissue samples were derived from the Human Protein Atlas (HPA). The specifications of the antibodies used in IHC are provided in the Materials and Methods. The line in each boxplot marks the median of the data. The middle box represents the middle 50% of the values in each group (from lower quartile to upper quartile). Upper and lower whiskers represent scores outside the middle 50%.