In the last several years, important work on the regulation of gene expression has elucidated the underlying mechanisms of function of a diverse array of transcription factors. Many activators and repressors, from yeast to vertebrates, act through the recruitment of multiprotein complexes with chromatin modifying activities to specific sites in the DNA. In this review, we focus on advances in understanding the roles of histone modifications in corepressor functions in budding yeast and relate these corepressors to their homologues in higher eukaryotes.