Dynamic chromatin loops bridge health and disease in the nuclear landscape

The genome is dynamically organized in the nuclear space in a manner that reflects and influences nuclear functions. Developmental processes that govern the formation and maintenance of epigenetic memories are also tightly linked to adaptive changes in the physical and functional landscape of the nuclear architecture. Biological and biophysical principles governing the three-dimensional folding of chromatin are therefore central to our understanding of epigenetic regulation during adaptive responses and in complex diseases, such as cancer. Accumulating evidence points to the direction that global alterations in nuclear architecture and chromatin folding conspire with unstable epigenetic states of the primary chromatin fiber to drive the phenotypic plasticity of cancer cells.