diff --git a/modules/io/pymod/export_mmcif_io.cc b/modules/io/pymod/export_mmcif_io.cc
index f64403548ec74202fa11ed6a89d85e795b7fd9bd..ea953160fecc97618df6d142976f6293cc4e75e5 100644
--- a/modules/io/pymod/export_mmcif_io.cc
+++ b/modules/io/pymod/export_mmcif_io.cc
@@ -415,6 +415,7 @@ void export_mmcif_io()
     .def("GetEntityBranchLinks", &MMCifInfo::GetEntityBranchLinks)
     .def("ConnectBranchLinks", &MMCifInfo::ConnectBranchLinks)
     .def("GetEntityBranchChainNames", &WrapGetNames)
+    .def("GetEntityBranchChains", &MMCifInfo::GetEntityBranchChains)
     .add_property("citations", make_function(&MMCifInfo::GetCitations,
                                    return_value_policy<copy_const_reference>()))
     .add_property("biounits", make_function(&MMCifInfo::GetBioUnits,
diff --git a/modules/io/tests/test_io_mmcif.py b/modules/io/tests/test_io_mmcif.py
index ad16f55e10251670decc43078a74806fbe8668ac..0da0a4c2e4ba5751755952dba846f29b6eba558e 100644
--- a/modules/io/tests/test_io_mmcif.py
+++ b/modules/io/tests/test_io_mmcif.py
@@ -302,6 +302,9 @@ class TestMMCifInfo(unittest.TestCase):
 
     chain_names = info.GetEntityBranchChainNames()
     self.assertEqual(chain_names, ['A', 'B'])
+    chains = info.GetEntityBranchChains()
+    self.assertEqual(chains[0].name, 'A')
+    self.assertEqual(chains[1].name, 'B')
 
 if __name__== '__main__':
   from ost import testutils