Histone modifications are frequently used as markers for enhancer states, but 
how to interpret enhancer states in the context of embryonic development is not 
clear. The poised enhancer signature, involving H3K4me1 and low levels of 
H3K27ac, has been reported to mark inactive enhancers that are poised for future 
activation. However, future activation is not always observed, and alternative 
reasons for the widespread occurrence of this enhancer signature have not been 
investigated. By analyzing enhancers during dorsal-ventral (DV) axis formation 
in the Drosophila embryo, we find that the poised enhancer signature is 
specifically generated during patterning in the tissue where the enhancers are 
not induced, including at enhancers that are known to be repressed by a 
transcriptional repressor. These results suggest that, rather than serving 
exclusively as an intermediate step before future activation, the poised 
enhancer state may be a mark for spatial regulation during tissue patterning. We 
discuss the possibility that the poised enhancer state is more generally the 
result of repression by transcriptional repressors.