Fig. 1

PDS treatment induced an increased BG4 signal in HeLa cells. a Histogram plot of the BG4 signal distribution in HeLa cells, incubated with BG4 + secondary (black), anti-flag + secondary (green), and only secondary antibody (red). The untreated cell population is depicted in blue. b G4 levels determined by fluorescence intensity of nuclei normalized over WT. Results are based on the average of n = 3 biologically independent experiments. The horizontal gray line represents the mean value. Significance was determined using an ordinary one-way ANOVA multiple comparison test. Asterisks indicate statistical significance in comparison with wildtype cells: ****p < 0.0001. c Histogram plot of the BG4 signal distribution in untreated HeLa cells (white) and cells incubated 24 h with 1 μM (gray) or 10 μM (black) PDS. d Quantification of the BG4 signal in untreated HeLa cells and cells incubated 24 h with 1 μM or 10 μM PDS. Plotted results were based on the average of at least n = 3 biologically independent experiments. Significance was calculated based on a one-sided Student’s t-test. Asterisks indicate statistical significance in comparison with wildtype cells: **p < 0.01. e Quantification of the BG4 signal in untreated HeLa cells and cells incubated 24 h with 10 μM or 25 μM PhenDC₃. Results are based on the average of n = 3 biologically independent experiments. Significance was calculated based on a one-sided Student’s t-test. Asterisks indicate statistical significance in comparison with wildtype cells: **p < 0.01. f Quantification of the BG4 signal in untreated HeLa cells and cells incubated 24 h with 10 μM PDS and fixed with PFA. Plotted results were based on the average of n = 3 biologically independent experiments. Significance was calculated based on a one-sided Student’s t-test. Asterisks indicate statistical significance in comparison with wildtype cells: *p < 0.05. An excel file providing individual data values is available in the section “Availability of data and materials”