The black shading indicates identical amino acids and the grey shading indicates conservative replacements. The numbers to the left indicate the amino acid position of the respective proteins. Residues identified as catalytic amino acids are labelled with asterisks. The position of the intron in the B. xylophilus sequence is indicated by an arrow above the alignment. BxLAMa, B. xylophilus sequence from the present study; BmLAMa, B. mucronatus sequence from the present study; X.axon, bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis (AAM36156); P.sp, bacteria Pseudomonas sp. (BAC16331); C.cell, bacterium Cellulosimicrobium cellulans (AAC44371); T.neap, bacterium Thermotoga neapolitana (CAA88008); S.purp, sea urchin S. purpuratus (AAC47235); P.sach, bivalve mollusc Pseudocardium (=Spisula) sachalinensis (AAP74223).