Expression of individual LINE-1 retroelements in urothelial carcinoma

Human genomes contain about 105 LINE-1 (L1) retroelements, of which over 100 are intact. L1s are normally tightly controlled by epigenetic mechanisms, which often fail in cancer. In urothelial bladder carcinoma (UC), especially, L1s become hypomethylated, expressed and contribute to genomic instability and tumor growth. It is unknown which individual L1s are activated. Here we seek to investigate this by using RNA-immunoprecipitation and nanopore sequencing in the VM-Cub-1 UC line.