ALKBH5 and leukemia: In leukemia-initiating cells, the promoter regions of ALKBH5 have markedly elevated amounts of active histone markers, including H3K9ac, H3K4me3, H3K4me2 and H3K79me2, and reduced levels of the repressive histone marker H3K27me3 and H3K9me3, leading to a higher degree of chromatin openness [99].