Summary
Cuticle and basement membrane collagens are extracellular matrix components encoded by a family of about 160 genes known to be expressed to which this gene belongs. Collagens have short interrupted blocks of Gly-X-Y sequence flanked by conserved cysteine residues, akin to vertebrate fibril-associated collagens with interrupted triple helix, and form trimers or higher order polymers. They have been grouped into five main subfamilies. The Caenorhabditis elegans cuticle is a complex multilayered extracellular matrix, consisting predominantly of cuticle collagens and synthesised by the underlying epidermal cell layer (called hypodermis). It is secreted five times during development, in embryos and before each molt, and is slightly different from stage to stage. During cuticle synthesis, the genes are expressed in a distinct temporal series, and the temporal groups contribute distinct discrete substructure of the extracellular matrix (McMahon et al, 2003). For a small number of collagen genes, with no distinctive sequence feature, but certainly critical to assembly or function of the extracellular matrix, such as dpy-2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 5 or 13, sqt-3, lon-3, bli-1, bli-2 or ram-4, loss of function causes a change in body shape (dumpy, squat, long, blistered), or leads to animals that roll when moving (helically twisted), or to male ray morphology defects. Some collagens that participate in the inner basement membranes such as let-2, emb-9, cle-1, mec-5 or unc-122 are essential for viability, or play critical roles in synaptogenesis or synaptic transmission, muscle attachment, cell migration and process guidance. But most other collagens probably have a redundant role, since loss of their function is apparently wild type, and alleles with visible effects in these genes are gain of function mutations. [Main specialists: Jim Kramer and Iain Johnstone][Wormbase] col-33 encodes a predicted cuticular collagen; by homology, col-33 is predicted to play a role in cuticle biosynthesis and regulation of body size and morphogenesis; however, as loss of col-33 activity via large-scale RNAi screens does not result in any obvious abnormalities, the precise role of COL-33 in C. elegans development and/or behavior is not yet known.
Wormbase predicts one model.

AceView summary
According to AceView, this gene is moderately expressed, only 22.8% of the average gene in this release. The sequence of this gene is defined by 3 cDNA clones.
The gene contains 3 distinct gt-ag introns. Transcription produces one mRNA.
The spliced mRNA putatively encodes a good protein, containing domains collagen triple helix repeat, nematode cuticle collagen, N-terminal [Pfam].
Function: There is one article specifically referring to this gene in PubMed. In addition we point below to 2 abstracts. Proteins are expected to have molecular function (structural constituent of cuticle). No phenotype has yet been reported to our knowledge: this gene's in vivo function is yet unknown.

Please quote: AceView: a comprehensive cDNA-supported gene and transcripts annotation, Genome Biology 2006, 7(Suppl 1):S12

Map: This gene col-33 maps on chomosome IV at position +0.08 (interpolated). In AceView, it covers 1.87 kb, from 4263335 to 4265206 (WS190), on the direct strand.
Links to: WormBase, NextDB, RNAiDB.
Other names: The gene is also known in Wormgenes/AceView by its positional name 4F29, in Wormbase by its cosmid.number name F36A4.6, in NextDB, the Nematode expression pattern database, as CEYK5954.

Legend