diff --git a/modules/atom/src/mmcif.cpp b/modules/atom/src/mmcif.cpp
index 06a091576a..bc211fd9ef 100644
--- a/modules/atom/src/mmcif.cpp
+++ b/modules/atom/src/mmcif.cpp
@@ -133,8 +133,9 @@ class AtomSiteCategory : public Category {
     return true;
   }
 
-  void get_chain_particle(const std::string &chain,
+  bool get_chain_particle(const std::string &chain,
                           const std::string &label_asym_id) {
+    bool new_chain = false;
     if (cp_ == nullptr || chain != curr_chain_) {
       curr_chain_ = chain;
       std::pair<Particle *, std::string> root_chain(root_p_, chain);
@@ -144,11 +145,13 @@ class AtomSiteCategory : public Category {
         Chain(cp_).set_label_asym_id(label_asym_id);
         Hierarchy(root_p_).add_child(Chain(cp_));
         chain_map_[root_chain] = cp_;
+        new_chain = true;
       } else {
         cp_ = chain_map_[root_chain];
       }
       rp_ = nullptr; // make sure we get a new residue
     }
+    return new_chain;
   }
 
   // Replace at most maxlen chars in dest, starting at pos, with repl
@@ -178,10 +181,11 @@ class AtomSiteCategory : public Category {
 
     // Use author-provided chain ID if available
     std::string label_asym_id = chain_.as_str();
+    bool new_chain;
     if (strlen(auth_chain_.as_str()) > 0) {
-      get_chain_particle(auth_chain_.as_str(), label_asym_id);
+      new_chain = get_chain_particle(auth_chain_.as_str(), label_asym_id);
     } else {
-      get_chain_particle(label_asym_id, label_asym_id);
+      new_chain = get_chain_particle(label_asym_id, label_asym_id);
     }
     std::string auth_seq_id_str = auth_seq_id_.as_str();
     // Check if new residue
@@ -200,6 +204,12 @@ class AtomSiteCategory : public Category {
       // if auth_seq_id is blank, use seq_id instead
       if (endptr == start) auth_seq_id = seq_id;
       char one_icode = 32; // default insertion code (space)
+
+      // Set the chain's sequence offset based on the first residue numbering
+      if (new_chain) {
+        Chain(cp_).set_sequence_offset(auth_seq_id - seq_id);
+      }
+
       // if auth_seq_id is not blank and contains something after the number,
       // use the first character of that as the insertion code
       if (endptr != start && *endptr) {
diff --git a/modules/atom/test/test_mmcif.py b/modules/atom/test/test_mmcif.py
index 8d0c958c67..c3cb63200c 100644
--- a/modules/atom/test/test_mmcif.py
+++ b/modules/atom/test/test_mmcif.py
@@ -415,6 +415,16 @@ def test_chain_selector_multi_char(self):
                   for x in IMP.atom.get_by_type(mp, IMP.atom.CHAIN_TYPE)]
         self.assertEqual([c.get_id() for c in chains], ['ZB'])
 
+    def test_chain_read_offset(self):
+        """Check reading of chain sequence offset from an mmCIF file"""
+        m = IMP.Model()
+
+        mp = IMP.atom.read_mmcif(self.get_input_file_name('chaintest.cif'), m,
+                                 IMP.atom.ChainPDBSelector(["ZK"]))
+        chains = [IMP.atom.Chain(x)
+                  for x in IMP.atom.get_by_type(mp, IMP.atom.CHAIN_TYPE)]
+        self.assertEqual(chains[0].get_sequence_offset(), 286)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     IMP.test.main()