The coding se quences of two S-adenosyl- L-homocysteine hy dro las es (SAHases) were iden ti fied in yel low lu pine by screenig of a cDNA li brary. One of them, cor re spond ing to the complete protein, was sequenced and compared with 52 other SAHase se - quences. Phylogen etic analy sis of these proteins identified three groups of the enzymes. Group A com prises only bac te rial se quences. Group B is sub di vided into two sub groups, one of which (B1) is formed by an i mal se quences. Sub group B2 con sist of two dis tinct clus ters, B2a and B2b. Clus ter B2b com prises all known plant se quences, in clud ing the yel low lu pine en zyme, which are dis tin guished by a 50-residue in sert. Group C is het er o ge neous and contains SAHases from Archaea as well as a new class of an i mal en zymes, dis tinctly dif fer ent from those in group B1.