Collagen cross-linking: insights on the evolution of metazoan extracellular matrix.

ABSTRACT: Collagens constitute a large family of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins that play a fundamental role in supporting the structure of various tissues in multicellular animals. The mechanical strength of fibrillar collagens is highly dependent on the formation of covalent cross-links between individual fibrils, a process initiated by the enzymatic action of members of the lysyl oxidase (LOX) family. Fibrillar collagens are present in a wide variety of animals, therefore often being associated with metazoan evolution, where the emergence of an ancestral collagen chain has been proposed to lead to the formation of different clades. While LOX-generated collagen cross-linking metabolites have been detected in different metazoan families, there is limited information about when and how collagen

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez-Pascual F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5120351 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature