The amino acid sequences of the 51% different horseradish peroxidase HRP C and turnip peroxidase TP 7 have previously been completed by us, but the three-dimensional structures are unknown. Recently the amino acid sequence and the crystal structure of yeast cytochrome c peroxidase have appeared. The three known apoperoxidases consist of 300 & 8 amino acid residues. The sequences have now been aligned and show 18% and 16% identity only, between the yeast peroxidase and plant peroxidase HRP C and TP 7, respectively. We show that different structural tests all support similar protein folds in plant peroxidases and yeast peroxidase and, therefore, a common evolutionary origin. The following tests support this thesis: (a) predicted helices in the plant peroxidases follow the complex pattern observed in the crystal structure of cytochrome c peroxidase; (b) their hydropathic profiles are similar and agree with observed buried and exposed peptide chain in cytochrome c peroxidase ; (c) half-cystines which are distant in the amino acid sequence of plant peroxidases become spatial neighbours when fitted into the cytochrome c peroxidase model; (d) the two-domain structure proposed from limited proteolysis of apoperoxidase HRP C is observed in the crystal structure of cytochrome c peroxidase.The similarities and differences of the plant and yeast peroxidases and the reactive side chains of a plant peroxidase active site are described. The characteristics of Ca2+-binding sequences, derived from several superfamilies, are applied to predict the Ca2 +-binding sequences in plant peroxidases.Plant peroxidases, their derivatives and catalytic intermediates have been the subject of a vast number of kinetic and spectroscopic studies. Such studies require a detailed spatial model for full interpretation. X-Ray crystallographic analysis of a plant peroxidase, however, has so far been unsuccessful, but the primary structures of horseradish peroxidase HRP C 11, 21, turnip peroxidase TP 7 [3, 41, and of the heme-linked sequences of turnip peroxidase TP 1, TP 2 and TP 3 [5] are known. This paper explores the available amino acid sequences of plant peroxidases to predict and describe molecular and structural characteristics of plant peroxidases.Recent comparison of structural and functional properties of plant peroxidases and the known hemoprotein superfamilies pointed to cytochrome c peroxidase from yeast as a possible analog. As part of the present paper, we support the thesis that plant peroxidases and cytochrome c peroxidase of yeast are structural homologues, although the reductant of cytochrome c peroxidase is a macromolecule, whereas it is a small molecule in the case of plant peroxidases. A crude model of plant peroxidases based on the recent crystal structure of cytochrome c peroxidase solved by T. Poulos et al. [6] is proposed and discussed. It is argued that the kinetic and spectral data on plant peroxidases may now confidently be interpreted in molecular terms based on the active site geometry of cytochrome c peroxidase and t...