In this issue, two papers implicate histone H3 lysine 56 acetylation in histone deposition in chromatin. Li et al. (2008) show that acetylation of H3K56 promotes S phase chromatin assembly that is mediated by the histone chaperones CAF-1 and Rtt106. Chen et al. (2008) establish that the acetylation mark promotes chromatin reassembly following DNA double-strand break repair.