Sea urchin collagen evolutionarily homologous to vertebrate pro-alpha 2(I) collagen

We isolated several overlapping cDNA clones covering the 4242 nucleotides of a Strongylocentrotus purpuratus transcript that codes for a fibrillar procollagen chain. The sea urchin polypeptide includes a 124-amino acid long amino pre-propeptide, a 1064-amino acid alpha-chain inclusive of 338 uninterrupted Gly-X-Y repeats, and a 226-residue carboxyl-propeptide. The distribution of the highly conserved cysteines within the last domain together with the structural configuration of the amino-propeptide and the organization of the corresponding coding region, strongly suggest that the sea urchin gene is evolutionarily related to the vertebrate pro-alpha 2(I) collagen. This work, therefore, represents the first report of the complete primary structure of an invertebrate fibrillar procollagen chain. It also provides a new insight into the evolution of the amino-propeptide, the most divergent among the major protein domains of fibrillar procollagen chains.