Somatic cell nuclear transfer (NT) is associated with aberrant changes in epigenetic reprogramming that disrupt embryo development. Here, we characterized the epigenetic patterns of histone 3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) and histone 3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3), the repressive histone signature in heterochromatin, in NT rabbit embryos. H3K9me3 modification was higher in all stages of NT vs. fertilized preimplantation embryos, consistent with decreased transcription of the H3K9me3 demethylase