Figure 7.
Diagram illustrating the nuclear epigenetic landscape of Alu repeats in normal and cancer cells. Alu-rich regions (dots) display high transcriptional activity and colocalize with active chromatin functional states (central part of the nucleus). In normal cells, most Alu elements remain methylated (black dots), but a few are unmethylated (gray and light gray dots) and show specific structural and functional features. Global DNA hypomethylation in cancer cells affects Alu repeats localized in late replicating lamin-associated domains, but is largely excluded from Alu-rich domains.
