diff --git a/modules/seq/base/pymod/export_sequence.cc b/modules/seq/base/pymod/export_sequence.cc
index ffb38aec60cbfabf4ed5114b70a0532e1064e54b..75f289aaba84c7f15de01cbf2a11350770d36c23 100644
--- a/modules/seq/base/pymod/export_sequence.cc
+++ b/modules/seq/base/pymod/export_sequence.cc
@@ -80,6 +80,9 @@ ConstSequenceList do_slice_a(ConstSequenceList& t, slice sl)
 {
   return do_slice<ConstSequenceList>(t, sl);
 }
+String aln_to_str(const AlignmentHandle& aln) {
+  return aln.ToString();
+}
 
 SequenceList do_slice_b(SequenceList& t, slice sl)
 {
@@ -347,7 +350,8 @@ void export_sequence()
     .def("FindSequence", &AlignmentHandle::FindSequence)
     .def("FindSequenceIndex", &AlignmentHandle::FindSequenceIndex)
     .def("Copy", &AlignmentHandle::Copy)
-    .def("ToString", &AlignmentHandle::ToString)
+    .def("ToString", &AlignmentHandle::ToString, (arg("width")=80))
+    .def("__str__", aln_to_str)
     .def("GetLength", &AlignmentHandle::GetLength)
     .def("__len__", &AlignmentHandle::GetLength)
     .def("GetSequences", &AlignmentHandle::GetSequences)