Structure of the collagen fibril: some variations on a theme of tetragonally packed dimers

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Abstract
Woodhead-Galloway theory of the 3-dimensional structure of the collagen fibril is discussed and an account of the low angle X-ray diffraction pattern is obtained. Square-packed dimers form the overlap region of the fibril. In the gap region clusters of 4 dimers at each of the points of a square lattice of side 3.8 nm provide the structure. Molecules are parallel to the axis of the fibril in the overlap region and tilted from the axis by a few degrees in the gap region. Some aspects of the self-assembly of such a structure are discussed. The axially projected D (= 66.8 nm) period, which is a property of the whole fibril, is not necessarily also a local property; there may be no well defined and finite small grouping of molecules that is itself D-periodic, such as is proposed in the microfibril model of the fibril. Apparently there is a D-periodic crystallographic unit cell.

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