Fig. 2

Cell fusion in the bone marrow can generate myeloid-like tumor hybrid cells. a Schematic illustration for identifying hybrid tumor cells. b Experimental schema for isolating hybrid tumor cells from the bone marrow of mice with bone metastasis. c Fluorescence microscope images of hybrid tumor cells. d Flow cytometry analysis of parental RM1 (mCherry-NLS) and hybrid tumor cells (scale bar: 50 µm). e Agarose gel electrophoresis of PCR products for EGFP and mCherry primers in RM1 cells, bone marrow (EGFP mouse), and tumor hybrid cells. f Karyotype analysis of RM1 cells and tumor hybrid cells. g Chromosome numbers in parental RM1 and hybrid tumor cells. h Volcano plot showing the differentially expressed genes between parental RM1 and hybrid tumor cells. i, j GO enrichment analysis of up-regulated genes (i) or proteins (j) in tumor hybrid cells. ***P < 0.001