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You are here: Home / Associated publications / Belgian Journal of Zoology / Bibliographic References / The collagen family of proteins: two distinct lines of evolution.

R GARRONE and JY EXPOSITO (1992)

The collagen family of proteins: two distinct lines of evolution.

BELGIAN JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY, 122(1):17-22.

Fourteen well-defined collagen types are known in vertebrates and a few of their counterparts have been described in invertebrates. A single, ancestral collagen type might have been expected in the most primitive multicellular animals, the sponges. These organisms actually contain collagen in two forms, cross-striated fibrils and a large assembly of thin filaments constituting the spongin skeleton. A molecular biology study has revealed that these two forms correspond to two distinct genetic collagen types. Several short-chain collagen sequences have been deduced from their cDNA. They bear homologies with nematode cuticular collagens, with basement membrane collagens and with the type XIII collagen of vertebrates. The corresponding genes are expressed in cells secreting the spongin. A fibrillar collagen has also been characterized. Its structure at the C-terminal non-helical domain and its gene organization allowed a comparison with the vertebrate type XI fibrillar collagen, considered as an axial core contained in vertebrate larger fibrils.

  • ISSN: 0777-6276
BJZ

ISSN 2295-0451 (online version)
ISSN 0777-6279 (printed version)
impact factor 2015: 0,87.

Editor-in-Chief:
Prof. Dr. Isa Schön
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Vautierstraat 29
1000 Brussels, Belgium

 



1863-1903
Annales de la Société malacologique de Belgique
 
1903-1923
​Annales de la Société royale malacologique et zoologique de Belgique
 
1923-1989
Annales de la Société Royale Zoologique de Belgique
 
1989-
Belgian Journal of Zoology