The CDY (Chromodomain on the Y) family is a small family of chromodomain containing proteins, whose chromodomains closely resemble those in HP1 and Polycomb. The CDY proteins play an essential role in normal spermatogenesis and brain development. Dysregulation of their expression has been linked to male infertility and various neurological diseases. Like the chromodomains of HP1 and Polycomb, the CDY chromodomains also recognize the lysinemethylated ARKS motif embedded in histone and non-histone proteins. Interestingly, the CDY chromodomains exhibit different binding preferences for the lysine-methylated ARKS motif in different sequence contexts. Here, we present the structural basis for selective binding of CDY1 to H3K9me3 and preferential binding of CDYL2 to H3tK27me3 over H3K27me3. Based on our structural, binding and mutagenesis data, we synthesized a more CDYL1/2 selective peptidic ligand UNC4850. Our work provides critical implications that CDYL1b's role in the regulation of neural development is dependent on its recognition of lysine-methylated ARKS motifs. morphology by repressing BDNF, a key regulator in dendrite development 16 ; it modulates neuronal intrinsic plasticity by repressing SCN8A, a sodium channel gene whose mutations cause epileptic encephalopathies 17 ; it controls neuronal migration by repressing RhoA, a gene involved in actin cytoskeleton regulation, and its deficiency causes neuronal migration disorders and increased susceptibility to epilepsy 18 ; and it contributes to stress-induced depression by repressing VGF (or VGF nerve growth factor inducible), a gene that plays a key role in synaptic plasticity 19 . CDYL1 represses expression of its target genes through recruitment of PRC2mediated H3K27me3 activity 16,17,19 , and possibly also through its own histone crotonylation ability 19 . In addition to recruiting PRC2 and its associated H3K27me3 activity, CDYL1 also recruits G9a, a histone H3K9 dimethyltransferase, which together with REST represses transcription of potential tumor suppressor genes 15 . Not surprisingly, both CDYL and G9a are upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but not in non-cancerous liver tissues 20 . CDYL1 also associates with chromatin assembly factor 1 (CAF1) and the MCM complex, and recruits histone H3K9/27 methyltransferases G9a, SETDB1, and PRC2 to the replication forks for transmission of repressive chromatin marks during DNA replication 21 , or to DNA double-strand break (DSB) sites for transcriptional silencing and promotion of homology-directed DNA repair (HDR) 22 .The chromodomains of the CDY family bind to the lysine-methylated ARKS motif present in histones H3K9, H3K27 and H1.4K26 sites and in histone di-methyltransferase G9a in vitro 4,5 .Since CDYL1 has been shown to be associated with the lysine methyltransferases G9a, SETDB1 and PRC2, which are also able to methylate the lysine residue in the ARKS motif, it was proposed that CDYL1 and lysine methyltransferases, such as G9a and PRC2, synergize to propagate/transmit the H3K9me2 and H3K27me3 m...