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Post-translational modification of chromatin has profound effects on many biological processes including transcriptional regulation, heterochromatin organization, and X-chromosome inactivation^,. Recent studies indicate that methylation on specific histone lysine (K) residues participates in many of these processes. Lysine methylation occurs in three distinct states, having either one (me1), two (me2) or three (me3) methyl groups attached to the amine group of the lysine side chain. These differences in modification state have an important role in defining how methylated chromatin is recognized and interpreted^,,. Until recently, histone lysine methylation was considered a stable modification^,, but the identification of histone demethylase enzymes has demonstrated the reversibility of this epigenetic mark^,,. So far, all characterized histone demethylases show enzymatic activity towards lysine residues modified in the …