Fig. 1

5’tiRNA-His-GTG is overexpressed in CRC tissues and is associated with tumor size. a Volcano plot displaying differentially expressed tsRNAs between four pairs of CRC and corresponding normal tissues. b Hierarchical cluster heatmap of upregulated and downregulated tsRNAs. c The relative expression levels of 10 selected tsRNAs were examined in four pairs of CRC and corresponding normal tissues using qRT-PCR. d The expression of 5’tiRNA-His-GTG, 3’tiRNA-Ile-AAT, 3’tiRNA-Lys-CTT, and 3’tiRNA-Arg-TCT-2-1 in 25 pairs of tissues were determined using qRT-PCR. e Paired comparison of 5’tiRNA-His-GTG expression levels between CRC and corresponding normal tissue (cancer-normal). f 5’tiRNA-His-GTG was highly expressed in larger tumors (left) and correlated positively with tumor size (right). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. All data are representative of at least three independent experiments and are presented as the means ± SD. CRC, colorectal cancer; tsRNA, tRNA-derived small RNA; qRT-PCR, quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR