Alignments of the dominant galaxies in poor clusters

We have examined the orientations of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in p oor MKW (Morgan, Kayser, and White) and AWM (Albert, White, and Morgan) clu sters and find that, like their counterparts in richer Abell clusters, poor cluster BCGs exhibit a strong propensity to be aligned with the principal axes of their host clusters as well as the surrounding distribution of near by (less than or equal to 20 h(-1) Mpc) Abell clusters. The processes respo nsible for dominant galaxy alignments are therefore independent of cluster richness. We argue that these alignments most likely arise from anisotropic infall of material into clusters along large-scale filaments.