Modeling Fibrillogenesis of Collagen-Mimetic Molecules.

ABSTRACT: One of the most robust examples of self-assembly in living organisms is the formation of collagen architectures. Collagen type I molecules are a crucial component of the extracellular matrix, where they self-assemble into fibrils of well-defined axial striped patterns. This striped fibrillar pattern is preserved across the animal kingdom and is important for the determination of cell phenotype, cell adhesion, and tissue regulation and signaling. The understanding of the physical processes that determine such a robust morphology of self-assembled collagen fibrils is currently almost completely missing. Here, we develop a minimal coarse-grained computational model to identify the physical principles of the assembly of collagen-mimetic molecules. We find that screened electrostatic interactio

SUBMITTER: Hafner AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7677131 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature