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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

In vitro Synthesis of Native, Fibrous Long Spacing and Segmental Long Spacing Collagen
Published on: September 20, 2012
The modular architecture of vertebrate collagens
1EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany.
Abstract:
Collagens are typical mosaic proteins containing a number of shuffled domains. These domains have been classified by sequence similarity in order to characterize their structural and functional relationships to other proteins. This analysis provides an overview of homologies of collagen domains. It also reveals two new relationships: (i) a module common to type V, IX, XI, and XII collagens was found to be homologous to the heparin binding domain of thrombospondin; (ii) the modular architecture of a human type VII collagen fragment was identified. Its N-terminal globular domain contains fibronectin type III repeats located adjacent to a Von Willebrand factor type A module. The proposed structural similarities point to analogous subfunctions of the respective domains in otherwise distinct proteins.
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