Identification of mutation sites by a consensus approach
The multiple sequence homology alignment was performed by first collecting all the sequences of AaGal homologues of 40% or higher sequence identity. Subsequently, a multiple sequence alignment of all the so obtained sequences was created using ClustalW2 [28], the alignment columns were automatically scanned and the positions where the original AaGal amino acid was under represented identified. Mutants of AaGal were constructed to make a specific position more alike the majority of known homologues.