NH2-terminal extensions on skin collagen from sheep with a genetic defect in conversion of procollagen into collagen

A modified form of procollagen was extracted with 10 M urea from the skin of lambs with dermatosparaxis, a disease which is produced by a genetic defect in the conversion of procollagen to collagen. The extracts contained little if any alpha1 and alpha2 chains of normal type I collagen, and instead they contained the larger polypeptides palpha1 and palpha2 together with high polymers. palpha1 was purified by ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The polypeptide was shown to be related to alpha1 by its chromatographic behavior, its amino acid composition, and the peptides obtained after cleavage with cyanogen bromide. The molecular weight of palpha1 by gel filtration was 112 300 +/- 6300. After digestion of palpha1 with bacterial collagenase, a fragment of about 100 amino acid residues was obtained which was similar in amino acid composition and antigenic activity to a comparable fragment previously obtained from the NH2-terminal region of palpha1 chains from dermatosparaxic cattle. However, after cleavage of palpha1 with cyanogen bromide, a larger NH2-terminal fragment of about 160 amino acid residues was obtained. The larger cyanogen bromide fragment contained 8 residues of hydroxyproline, 12 residues of proline, and 19 residues of glycine not found in the NH2-terminal fragment isolated after digestion with bacterial collagenase. The results indicated that, in addition to containing amino acid sequences similar to those found in globular proteins, the peptide extensions on the NH2-terminal end of the palpha1 chain of procollagen also contain amino acid sequences similar to those found in the triple-helical region of the collagen molecule. The molecular weight of palpha2 by gel filtration was 102 400 +/- 6800. No additional peptide fragment was recovered after digestion of palpha2 with bacterial collagenase.