Fig. 2.

A log-linear plot of the triglycine repeats present in all of the presently sequenced collagen-gene containing organisms. The abrupt shelf at 344 triglycine repeats may represent an optimization whereby the necessity to have a long molecule for strong, compliant tissues competes with the necessity to have a short molecule for robust self-assembly. In the labels, roman numerals indicate collagen types and “u” indicates an unclassified collagen