Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) participates in the process of mitochondrial DNA replication and transcription. microRNAs (miRNAs) serve an important role in the regulation of gene expression. However, the roles of TFAM and certain miRNAs and their associations in the development of numerous cancer types remain unclear. The current study demonstrated that the expression of TFAM was significantly upregulated in colon cancer compared with the normal tissue, while the expression of miRNA‑590‑3p (miR‑590‑3p) was predicted with a high score using miRWalk software, and the luciferase assay demonstrated that TFAM was the direct target of miRNA‑590‑3p. miR‑590‑3p exhibited high expression levels in both colon cancer tissue and the SW480 cell line. Furthermore, downregulated expression of miR‑590‑3p significantly inhibited the growth of SW480 cells, which was consistent with results indicating downregulated expression of TFAM in SW480 cells from a previous study. In summary, the results of the current study concluded that miR‑590‑3p, via direct targeting of TFAM, may serve an important role in the tumorigenesis of colon cancer, and may be a promising target for colon cancer therapeutics.