Fig. 2

Correlation between mRNA and protein abundance. a mRNA and protein were positively correlated for most (87%) pairs of mRNA-proteins with a mean Spearman’s correlation of 0.31, but only 45% showed a significant correlation (p < 0.05). b Density plot of Spearman’s correlation by medulloblastoma subgroup; a significantly lower Spearman correlation mean was found in Group 4, 0.16 compared to 0.30, 0.24 and 0.21 in Group3, SHH and WNT respectively. c Different biological processes displayed differences in mRNA and protein correlation. Genes encoding ribosomal and metabolic functions showed higher mRNA-protein correlation than those involved in the spliceosome or proteasome. d Relationship between mRNA-protein correlation and the stability of the molecules. Human mRNA and proteins are divided into stable or unstable and the distribution of mRNA-protein Spearman’s correlation is represented by box-plots. Unstable proteins have significantly lower correlations than stable ones; however, no differences were found for mRNA. p-values were calculated using the two-sided Wilcoxon rank sum test