Collagen Type XXII (COL22)

COL22A1, a member of the FACIT (fibrillar-associated collagens with interrupted triple helices) subgroup of the collagen protein family, specifically localizes to tissue junctions .Using cell adhesion assays, Koch et al. (2004) demonstrated that COL22A1 acts as a cell adhesion ligand for lung fibroblasts expressing alpha-1/beta-1 and alpha-2/beta-1 integrins, and for keratinocytes expressing alpha-2/beta-1 integrins (Koch et al., 2004).

Koch et al. (2004) determined that the COL22A1 gene contains 66 exons and spans 326 kb. The signal peptide coding sequence is located in the second exon.By genomic sequence analysis, Koch et al. (2004) mapped the COL22A1 gene to chromosome 8q24.2 and the mouse homolog to chromosome 15D2-D3.