text: Eukaryotic transcription repressors share some of the mechanisms used by their prokaryotic counterparts. For example, by binding to a site on DNA that overlaps with the binding site of an activator, a repressor can inhibit binding of the activator. But more frequently, eukaryotic repressors inhibit the function of an activator by masking its activating domain, preventing its nuclear localization, promoting its degradation, or inactivating it through chemical modifications. Repressors can directly inhibit transcription initiation by binding to a site upstream of a promoter and interacting with the transcriptional machinery. Repressors can indirectly repress transcription by recruiting histone modifiers (deacetylases and methylases) or nucleosome remodeling enzymes that affect the accessibility of the DNA. Repressing histone and DNA modifications are also the basis of transcriptional silencing that can spread along the chromatin and switch off multiple genes.