Figure 1.

A section of a multiple sequence alignment of M13 peptidases. A multiple sequence alignment of 111 protein sequences was generated using MUSCLE [32,33] and was as the basis for the analysis presented. A highly conserved section of the alignment, representing residues 541 to 652 of human neprilysin, contains important catalytic residues. These residues include the HExxH zinc binding motif and the catalytically important GENIAD and VNAFY motifs which are coloured blue. For full alignment see additional file 2.