Isolation and partial characterization of a new alpha component of collagen from muscle of kuruma prawn Penaeus japonicus

1. 1. A new α component, α2(Pr), was successfully isolated from the pepsin-solubilized collagen from the muscle of kuruma prawn. 2. 2. The component α2(Pr) was genetically distinct from components comprising Type AR-I and AR-II collagens by peptide mapping with proteases, amino acid analysis, and immunoblotting, and had high contents of leucine and hydroxylsine, and a low content of alanine. 3. 3. The effect of pepsin digestion on the molecule containing the α2(Pr) component was examined by using immunological techniques. The component α2(Pr) in intact form consisted of several types of components. Although they were all identical to each other in the helical region, each of them had a distinct form of non-helical region with a slight modification.