AbstractTranscription of eukaryotic genes is an exceedingly sophisticated and complicated process, orchestrated by layers of control mechanisms involving a myriad of transcription factors and DNA control sequences, with both groups subject to multiple modifications. The availability of various recent genomic approaches has provided previously unforeseen opportunities to examine the cis‐regulatory landscape of the entire genome, resulting in the identification of a potentially overwhelming number of enhancers and novel enhancer functions. In this review, we focus on the activities of enhancers in metazoans and discuss how they serve to regulate gene expression during early development. WIREs Dev Biol 2012, 1:469–478. doi: 10.1002/wdev.53This article is categorized under: Gene Expression and Transcriptional Hierarchies > Regulatory Mechanisms