Polysaccharide lyases are the products of various microorganisms, bacteriophage and some eukaryotes. All such enzymes cleave a hexose-1,4-alpha- or beta-uronic acid sequence by beta-elimination. They are in some examples, the only known type of enzymes degrading their polyanionic substrates. Although only a small number of these enzymes have been exhaustively studied, the pectin lyases of bacterial origin have proved to be of interesting crystal structure containing a parallel beta-helix domain. Alginate and heparin lyases may yield products with biotechnological potential.