Complete Primary Structure of Two Splice Variants of Collagen XII, and Assignment of α1(XII) Collagen (COL12A1), α1(IX) Collagen (COL9A1), and α1(XIX) Collagen (COL19A1) to Human Chromosome 6q12–q13

Overlapping cDNA clones that encode the full-length human α1(XII) collagen polypeptides were isolated. The long variant molecule cDNA of 9750 nucleotides (nt) contains a 9189-nt open reading frame encoding 3063 amino acid residues. The short variant molecule cDNA of 6258 nt contains a 5697-nt open reading frame encoding 1899 amino acid residues. At the amino terminus of each variant is a 24-residue signal peptide that is followed by the mature polypeptides of 3039 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular mass of 330,759 Da for the long variant and 1875 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular mass of 203,163 Da for the short variant polypeptide. The human collagen XII chains are predicted to have all the structural domains described for the molecules in chicken and mouse, including, fibronectin type III repeats, von Willebrand factor A domains, and two triple-helical domains similar to those of all the other collagen family members. The amino acid residue sequence of human α1(XII) collagen showed 92% identity to the mouse chain and 78% identity to the chicken chain. The sequence of three peptide fragments of collagen XII isolated from human placenta was identical to the sequence predicted from the deduced cDNA sequence and confirms that the cDNA encodes human α1(XII) collagen. An isolated genomic clone was used to map the locus of the COL12A1 gene to chromosome 6q12–q13, very close to the locus of the FACIT collagen genes COL9A1 and COL19A1. RT-PCR on a variety of cDNAs demonstrates that both variant transcripts appear in human amnion, chorion, skeletal muscle, small intestine, and in cell cultures of human dermal fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and endothelial cells. Only the small variant transcript is apparent in human lung, placenta, kidney, and a squamous cell carcinoma cell line. These results confirm the previous observations showing that collagen XII is found in collagen I-containing tissues.