The domain fold is a jelly-roll, composed of two antiparallel beta-sheets and two short alpha-helices [1]. A groove on beta-sheet I exhibited the best surface complementarity to the collagen. This site partially overlaps with the peptide sequence previously shown to be critical for collagen binding. Recombinant proteins containing single amino acid mutations designed to disrupt the surface of the putative binding site exhibited significantly lower affinities for collagen.

1: Structure of the collagen-binding domain from a Staphylococcus aureus adhesin. Symersky J, Patti JM, Carson M, House-Pompeo K, Teale M, Moore D, Jin L, Schneider A, DeLucas LJ, Hook M, Narayana SV; Nat Struct Biol 1997;4:833-838. PMID:9334749