Germ cells are unique in their ability to give rise to the next generation,and thus must remain undifferentiated to maintain totipotency. Mammalian mortality-factor-related MRG15 is a chromodomain protein that regulates transcription. The C. elegans orthologue of MRG15 is MRG-1, and now Hiroshi Sakamoto's and Susan Strome's labs (see p. 757) report that MRG-1 is required for germline development and for X chromosome silencing in C. elegans. Surprisingly, however, MRG-1 localizes only to autosomes and is undetectable on X chromosomes. MRG-1 shares with the maternal-effect sterile protein, MES-4, an autosomal localisation and the ability to repress genes in the germ line. However, MRG-1's autosomal localisation does not depend on MES-4 activity, and vice versa. MRG-1 might, the authors propose,act in a complex to modify chromatin organisation and gene expression through the regulation of histone acetylation. They further suggest that MRG-1 might de-repress autosomal genes that can silence genes on the X chromosome; these autosomal genes, however, have yet to be identified.