Structure-Based Multiple Alignmentof Extracellular Pectate Lyase Sequences. Susan Heffron. Department of Biochemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521 U.S.A. Bernard Henrissat(2), Marilyn D.Yoder(1), Susan Lietzke(1), and Frances Jurnak(1) (1) Department of Biochemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521 U.S.A. (2)Centre de Re-cherches sur les Macromolecules Vegetales, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, BP 53X -38041 Grenoble, France. MPMI 8:331-334. Accepted 8 December 1994. Copyright 1995 The American Phytopathological Society.

Pectate lyases are secreted virulence factors which degrade the pectate component of plant cell walls. The evolutionary-based multiple alignment of extracellular pectate lyases has been corrected using three-dimensional structural information derived from Erwinia chyrsanthemi pectate lyases C and E. The new multiple alignment reveals invariant amino acids likely to be involved in two different enzymatic functions.