Decorin belongs to the small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycan family, interacts with fibrillar collagens, and regulates the assembly, structure, and biomechanical properties of connective tissues. The decorin-collagen type I-binding region is located in leucine-rich repeats 5-6. Site-directed mutagenesis of this 54-residue-long collagen-binding sequence identifies Arg-207 and Asp-210 in leucine-rich repeat 6 as crucial for the binding to collagen. The synthetic peptide SYIRIADTNIT, which includes Arg-207 and Asp-210, inhibits the binding of full-length recombinant decorin to collagen in vitro. These collagen-binding amino acids are exposed on the exterior of the -sheet-loop structure of the leucine-rich repeat. This resembles the location of interacting residues in other leucine-rich repeat proteins.Decorin is an extracellular matrix proteoglycan involved in collagen type I fibril formation and collagen matrix assembly in a wide range of connective tissues (1-3). Decorin belongs to the small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycan family (SLRPs) 2 (4), which also includes, for example, biglycan (5), fibromodulin (6), lumican (7), and asporin (8, 9). The decorin core protein is composed of 12 tandem leucine-rich repeats (LRRs), each containing an average of 24 amino acid residues. The decorin threedimensional structure, resolved by x-ray crystallography, reveals an arch-shaped molecule with LRRs composed of parallel -sheets on the concave surface and short -strands, 3 10 helices, and polyproline II helices on the convex face (10). Close to the N terminus, decorin is substituted with a single chondroitin or dermatan sulfate chain. Decorin also has three potential consensus sites for N-glycosylation in the LRR domain (4).Several SLRPs are involved in the regulation of collagen fibril formation and matrix assembly, as demonstrated in SLRP-deficient mice (11). Decorin deficiency causes skin fragility (12); biglycan-deficient mice suffer from reduced bone mass and osteoarthritis (13); lack of fibromodulin results in weaker tendons and ligaments, causing osteoarthritis (14); and lumican ablation correlates with corneal opacity (15). In all these cases, ultrastructural imaging reveals abnormally developed collagen fibrils.Decorin presumably affects the lateral association of collagen type I fibrils in vitro as it binds to collagen monomers and delays their accretion to the growing fibrils (1). Collagen fibrils in the skin of decorin-deficient mice are thicker and irregularly shaped, in contrast to smaller, uniform fibrils formed in wild type mice (12). Decorin binds near the C terminus of collagen, close to an intermolecular cross-linking site (16), and seems to have a tutelary function in collagen fibril assembly, which is important for the collagen cross-linking. In addition, decorin also binds collagen type VI (17), transforming growth factor- (18), fibronectin (19), and epidermal growth factor receptor (20).The precise decorin-binding site for collagen has not been determined. An early study identified two collagen-bin...