[Abstract] Objective: To investigate the expression of transgelin (TAGLN) in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues and its effect on the proliferation, migration and invasion of CRC SW480 cells. Methods: Surgically resected CRC tissues and corresponding para-cancerous tissues of 97 CRC patients from May 2015 to August 2016 in the Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Zhengzhou University were collected; In addition, CRC cell lines SW620, SW480, HCT116 and normal colorectal mucosal cell line FHC were also collected for this study. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of TAGLN in CRC tissues, and the correlation between TAGLN and patients’ clinicopathological features was analyzed. Quantitative Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and Western blotting (WB) were used to detect the mRNA and protein expressions of TAGLN in CRC cell lines. si-TAGLN and si-Ctrl were respectively transfected into SW480 cells by liposome transfection method. The effects of silencing TAGLN on the proliferation, migration and invasion of SW480 cells were detected by CCK-8, Wound-healing assay and Transwell assay, respectively; and the expression of EMT-related proteins E-cadherin, N-cadherin and vimentin were detected by WB. Results: The positive expression rate of TAGLN in CRC tissues was significantly higher than that in para-cancerous tissues (P<0.01), and TAGLN expression was correlated with TNM stage, degree of tumor differentiation and lymph node metastasis in CRC patients (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The mRNA and protein expression levels of TAGLN in SW480 cells were significantly higher than those in FHC cells (all P<0.01). After TAGLN silence, the proliferation, invasion and migration ability of SW480 cells were significantly reduced (all P<0.01), the expression level of E-cadherin in SW480 cells was increased, while the expression levels of N-cadherin and vimentin were decreased (all P<0.01). Conclusion: TAGLN is highly expressed in CRC tissues and cells. Silencing TAGLN can inhibit the proliferation, invasion and migration of CRC cells, suggesting that TAGLN plays an important role in the occurrence and development of CRC.