Posttranslational histone modifications modulate chromatin-templated processes in various biological systems. H4K20 methylation is considered to have an evolutionarily ancient role in DNA repair and genome integrity, while its function in heterochromatin function and gene expression is thought to have arisen later during evolution. Here, we identify and characterize H4K20 methylases of the Set8 family in Plasmodium and Toxoplasma, two medically important members of the protozoan phylum Apicomplexa. Remarkably, parasite Set8-related proteins display H4K20 mono-, di-, and trimethylase activities, in striking contrast to the monomethylase-restricted human Set8. Structurally, few residues forming the substrate-specific channel dictate enzyme methylation multiplicity. These enzymes are cell cycle regulated and focally enriched at pericentric and telomeric heterochromatin in both parasites. Collectively, our findings provide new insights into the evolution of Set8-mediated biochemical pathways, suggesting that the heterochromatic function of the marker is not restricted to metazoans. Thus, these lower eukaryotes have developed a diverse panel of biological stages through their high capacity to differentiate, and epigenetics only begins to emerge as a strong determinant of their biology.The fundamental unit of chromatin, termed the nucleosome, is subject to a dizzying array of posttranslational modifications, which work alone or in combination to constitute a histone code that regulates chromatin structure and function (18). Among these modifications, lysine methylations index chromatin regions, facilitating epigenetic organization of eukaryotic genomes. In contrast to other histone-modifying enzymes, histone lysine (K) methyltransferases (HKMTs) are enzymes devoted to the methylation of highly specific lysine residues which either promote gene activation (H3K4, H3K79, and H3K36) or generate a repressed chromatin state (H3K9, H3K27, and H4K20). With just one exception (Dot1p), these enzymes belong to the SET family. The SET domain, which initially took its name from the Drosophila genes Su(var)3-9, enhancer of zeste, and trithorax, is crucial for the catalytic activity of HKMTs (3, 9, 24). While lysine methylation mainly occurs on histone H3 tails, the only lysine residue of histone H4 shown to be methylated in vivo is lysine 20. Methylation of H4K20 is involved in a diverse array of nuclear processes, including gene silencing (12, 26), pericentric heterochromatin formation (37), mitotic regulation in metazoans (20, 21), and DNA damage checkpoint control in the cell cycle of Schizosaccharomyces pombe (35).A number of different SET proteins have been identified as being able to methylate H4K20, including metazoan Set8 (also named Pr-Set7) (12, 26), Drosophila ASH1 (2), murine NSD1 (30), mammalian SUV4-20H1/2 (37), and its S. pombe ortholog SET9 (35). The modification is evidently absent in several simple eukaryotes, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila (26). H4K20 methylati...