Fig. 2

Interactions between CRC-associated bacteria and TSG methylation. a Heatmap of interaction effect coefficients between bacteria abundance and TSG methylation. The interaction was calculated in three phenotype groups respectively: adenoma-adjacent (AN) tissues plus adenomas, CRC-AN tissues, and CRC. Horizontally, H. hathewayi and F. nucleatum showed increased positive associations as tumor progressed. The gray color denotes undefined interaction due to empty count of bacteria in a phenotype group. Vertically, the bacteria are ranked according to the quantity of interactions they involved in. Bacteria mean abundance heatmap were appended to the left of the interaction heatmap. b Significant interaction networks involving H. hathewayi and F. nucleatum in the non-normal samples were shown. c Interactions involving H. hathewayi in the CRC-AN and CRC groups were depicted separately in CRC and CRC-adjacent groups. Red: positive association; Green: negative association. The direction of interaction effects was significantly positive in the CRC group. d Violin plot of TSG methylation versus bacteria abundance. The methylation levels of gene EYA4 and RBM38 increased as H. hathewayi and F. nucleatum abundances increased