The research is to understand the fundamental principles underlying chromatin organization, particularly how small RNAs andepigenetic marks contribute to development and disease. Toward this goal,I have chosen to study the fission yeast, a model eukaryotic organism wellsuited for chromatin studies. Many aspects of chromatin control in thegenetically tractable model organism are largely conserved. Through acombination of approaches, including genetics, cell biology, biochemistryand genomics, I have identified multiple key chromatin regulators,including Dos1, Dos2 and Lid2, a conserved histone demethylase. Furthercharacterization of these factors allowed me to discover novel mechanismsused for governing RNA interference and epigenetic events, including howvarious epigenetic marks are established, maintained and coordinated, andreveal the importance of epigenetic regulation in chromatin organization,gene expression and cell growth.