As shown in Figure 3C, (upper left panel) and as previously described for other CRC cell lines, a small set of DLD-1 cells, estimated as about 4% of the whole population were able to grow as colonospheres when cultured for 11 days in such conditions and, also seen in Figure 3C, colonosphere formation was drastically decreased in response to SOX9-inducible expression in DLD-1 cells. Here, SOX9 is linked to colorectal carcinoma.