Mechanistic Insight into the Fragmentation of Type I Collagen Fibers into Peptides and Amino Acids by a Vibrio Collagenase

Abstract

Many Vibrio species are pathogens and cause serious diseases in humans and aquatic animals. The collagenases produced by pathogenic Vibrio species have been regarded as important virulence factors, which occasionally exhibit direct pathogenicity to the infected host or facilitate other toxins’ diffusion through the digestion of host collagen.