MSX1 and colorectal cancer: To identify the molecular mechanism underlying the ETV4-mediated EMT and metastasis in colorectal cancer cells, we next leveraged our RNA-seq data and a series of key downstream genes associated with EMT were further confirmed, including MER3, MSX1, LOXL2, THRB, WISP2, COL11A1, ADRB2 and E2F2 (Fig.4a-b).