METTL3 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: To further confirm whether METTL3 participates in ESCC progression by COL12A1/RAF/MEK/ERK/MAPK signaling pathway, MAP2K1 (with p<0.01 and log2(fc)=-1.00, suggested by mRNA-seq), which encodes the MEK1 protein, was assessed by qRT-PCR (Figure 4G).