The main features of the triple helical structure of collagen were deduced in the mid-1950s from fibre X-ray diffraction of tendons. Yet, the resulting models only could offer an average description of the molecular conformation. A critical advance came about 20 years later with the chemical synthesis of sufficiently long and homogeneous peptides with collagen-like sequences. The availability of these collagen model peptides resulted in a large number of biochemical, crystallographic and NMR studies that have revolutionized our understanding of collagen structure. High-resolution crystal structures from collagen model peptides have provided a wealth of data on collagen conformational variability, interaction with water, collagen stability or the effects of interruptions. Furthermore, a large increase in the number of structures of collagen model peptides in complex with domains from receptors or collagen-binding proteins has shed light on the mechanisms of collagen recognition. In recent years, collagen biochemistry has escaped the boundaries of natural collagen sequences. Detailed knowledge of collagen structure has opened the field for protein engineers who have used chemical biology approaches to produce hyperstable collagens with unnatural residues, rationally designed collagen heterotrimers, self-assembling collagen peptides, etc. This review summarizes our current understanding of the structure of the collagen triple helical domain (COL×3) and gives an overview of some of the new developments in collagen molecular engineering aiming to produce novel collagen-based materials with superior properties.
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April 2016
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Collagen helical symmetry varies with its amino acid sequence: shown is a helix with seventeen-fold symmetry, this is a good representation for the average conformation of the entire collagen molecule. For further details see pp. 1001-1025. Image kindly provided by Dr Jordi Bella. - PDF Icon PDF LinkFront Matter
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Review Article|
April 08 2016
Collagen structure: new tricks from a very old dog
Jordi Bella
Jordi Bella
1
*Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, U.K.
1email jordi.bella@manchester.ac.uk
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
November 16 2015
Revision Received:
January 25 2016
Accepted:
February 01 2016
Online ISSN: 1470-8728
Print ISSN: 0264-6021
© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society
2016
Biochem J (2016) 473 (8): 1001–1025.
Article history
Received:
November 16 2015
Revision Received:
January 25 2016
Accepted:
February 01 2016
Citation
Jordi Bella; Collagen structure: new tricks from a very old dog. Biochem J 15 April 2016; 473 (8): 1001–1025. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BJ20151169
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