Two monomethyl esters of ␣-(1-4)-linked D-galacturonic dimers and three monomethyl esters of ␣-(1-4)-linked D-galacturonic acid trimers were synthesized chemically and further used as substrates in order to establish the substrate specificity of six different endopolygalacturonases from Aspergillus niger, one exopolygalacturonase from Aspergillus tubingensis, and four selected Erwinia chrysanthemi pectinases; exopolygalacturonan hydrolase X (PehX), exopolygalacturonate lyase X (PelX), exopectate lyase W (PelW), and oligogalacturonan lyase (Ogl). All A. niger endopolygalacturonases (PGs) were unable to hydrolyze the two monomethyldigalacturonates and 2-methyltrigalacturonate, whereas 1-methyltrigalacturonate was only cleaved by PGI, PGII, and PGB albeit at an extremely low rate. The hydrolysis of 3-methyltrigalacturonate into 2-methyldigalacturonate and galacturonate by all endopolygalacturonases demonstrates that these enzymes can accommodate a methylgalacturonate at subsite ؊2. The A. tubingensis exopolygalacturonase hydrolyzed the monomethyl-esterified digalacturonates and trigalacturonates although at lower rates than for the corresponding oligogalacturonates. 1-Methyltrigalacturonate was hydrolyzed at the same rate as trigalacturonate which demonstrates that the presence of a methyl ester at the third galacturonic acid from the nonreducing end does not have any effect on the performance of exopolygalacturonase. Of the four E. chrysanthemi pectinases, Ogl was the only enzyme able to cleave digalacturonate, whereas all four enzymes cleaved trigalacturonate. Ogl does not cleave monomethyl-esterified digalacturonate and trigalacturonate in case the second galacturonic acid residue from the reducing end is methyl-esterified. PehX did not hydrolyze any of the monomethyl-esterified trigalacturonates. The two lyases, PelX and PelW, were both only able to cleave 1-methyltrigalacturonate into ⌬4,5-unsaturated 1-methyldigalacturonate and galacturonate.Fungi from the genus Aspergillus and bacteria from the genus Erwinia produce a wide spectrum of enzymes involved in pectin degradation. Pectin is a heteropolysaccharide with smooth regions of ␣-1-4-linked D-galacturonic acid residues of which approximately 70% of the carboxylic groups are methylesterified. Besides these homogalacturonan parts, the polysaccharide also contains highly branched regions with L-rhamnose and D-galacturonate as the alternating constituents of the backbone structure in which rhamnose can be found to be highly substituted with galactose or long branched arabinose side chains and in which the D-galacturonate moieties can be methyl-esterified, O-acetylated, or substituted with xylose (1). Aspergillus niger was shown to harbor an endopolygalacturonase (PG) 1 gene family consisting of 7 members (2). The PG encoding genes have been cloned and sequenced, and six of them have been overexpressed individually (3-6).2 The enzymes have been characterized biochemically using polygalacturonate, pectins with different degree of methyl esterification, and oligog...