Type-I collagen fibrils: From growth morphology to local order

. The length of type-I collagen fibrils in solution increases through the development and progress of pointed tips appearing successively at the two ends of an axis-symmetric shaft with constant diameter. Those tips, respectively fine ( α ) or coarse ( β ) have opposite molecular orientations. The α...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European physical journal. E, Soft matter and biological physics Soft matter and biological physics, 2019-04, Vol.42 (4), p.49-9, Article 49
Main Authors: Charvolin, Jean, Sadoc, Jean-François
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and Medical Physics
Biophysics
Collagen
Collagen Type I - chemistry
Complex Fluids and Microfluidics
Complex Systems
Condensed matter physics
Deposition
Dislocations
Mathematical morphology
Mechanical properties
Models, Molecular
Nanotechnology
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Polymer Sciences
Protein Conformation, alpha-Helical
Regular Article
Soft and Granular Matter
Spirals
Staggered configuration
Surfaces and Interfaces
Symmetry
Thin Films
Tips
Trajectories
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Summary:. The length of type-I collagen fibrils in solution increases through the development and progress of pointed tips appearing successively at the two ends of an axis-symmetric shaft with constant diameter. Those tips, respectively fine ( α ) or coarse ( β ) have opposite molecular orientations. The α -pointed tips, the first to appear, are particularly remarkable as they all show, on most of their length, a common parabolic profile which stays constant during the growth. Assuming that the latter occurs by lateral accretion of individual molecules in staggered configuration, we propose to give account of this prominent morphological feature along a purely geometrical argument, the profile of a tip being linked to the shape of the trajectories followed all along the accretion process. Among several possible trajectories, Fermat spirals lead to a parabolic profile in perfect agreement with the one observed for α -pointed tips. This is to be put in relation with the presence of such spirals in phyllotactic patterns which ensure the best packing efficiency in cases of axis-symmetry, which is indeed that of dense collagen fibrils. Moreover, those patterns are structured by concentric circles of dislocations, constitutive of the structure itself, whose behaviour might contribute to the mechanical properties of the fibrils. Graphical abstract
ISSN:1292-8941
1292-895X
DOI:10.1140/epje/i2019-11812-1