Unlike animals, plants do not set aside germ cells during embryogenesis. Instead, the precursors of these cells, called spore mother cells (SMCs), are generated via a somatic-to-reproductive transition that occurs later in life. Although epigenetic remodelling has been largely studied in the post-meiotic phase of germline development, it is unknown whether pre-meiotic events contribute to cellular reprogramming in the reproductive lineage. Now, on p. 4008, Célia Baroux and colleagues investigate these dynamic changes and uncover widespread chromatin reprogramming during the slow meiotic S-phase that accompanies specification of the female Arabidopsis SMC. As in animal primordial germ cells, the authors observe increased nuclear size, reduction in heterochromatin, depletion of linker histones, chromatin decondensation, changes in histone modifications and core histone variants in the female SMCs. The authors propose a bi-phasic chromatin reprogramming process that is necessary for proper somatic-to-reproductive cell fate transition and thus competency to establish the pluripotent, female gametophyte.