Basement membranes contain several proteoglycans, and those bearing heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycans such as perlecan and agrin usually predominate. Most mammalian basement membranes also contain chondroitin sulfate, and a core protein, bamacan, has been partially characterized. We have now obtained cDNA clones encoding the entire bamacan core protein of Mr = 138 kD, which reveal a five domain, head-rod-tail configuration. The head and tail are potentially globular, while the central large rod probably forms coiled-coil structures, with one large central and several very short interruptions. This molecular architecture is novel for an extracellular matrix molecule, but it resembles that of a group of intracellular proteins, including some proposed to stabilize the mitotic chromosome scaffold. We have previously proposed a similar stabilizing role for bamacan in the basement membrane matrix. The protein sequence has low overall homology, apart from very small NH2- and COOH-terminal motifs
