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In the last ten years, the importance of chromatin modifications in many aspects of biology has become apparent. Several families of enzymes that modify histones have been identified, the majority of which are conserved throughout evolution. The enormous interest in this field has resulted in a very rapid rate of discovery of new enzymes, but this in turn has lead to a noncoherent nomenclature that is inconsistent between species and often confusing to the many scientists who use them.

A number of scientists feel that this situation needs to be rectified, not only for those currently working with these enzymes but also for future generations of young scientists who are interested in joining the field. We therefore propose to rationalize the nomenclature for some of the most inconsistently named families of chromatin-modifying enzymes.