Histone deacetylase 8 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the HDAC8 gene,  and is biologically involved in skull morphogenesis  and metabolic control of the ERR-alpha/PGC1-alpha transcriptional complex.

Histones play a critical role in transcriptional regulation, cell cycle progression, and developmental events. Histone acetylation/deacetylation alters chromosome structure and affects transcription factor access to DNA. The protein encoded by this gene belongs to class I of the histone deacetylase family. It catalyzes the deacetylation of lysine residues in the histone N-terminal tails and represses transcription in large multiprotein complexes with transcriptional co-repressors. Multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq].
Function: Responsible for the deacetylation of lysine residues on the N-terminal part of the core histones (H2A, H2B, H3 and H4). Histone deacetylation gives a tag for epigenetic repression and plays an important role in transcriptional regulation, cell cycle progression and developmental events. Histone deacetylases act via the formation of large multiprotein complexes. May play a role in smooth muscle cell contractility.