Food Allergens and allergenicity of glycine max (L.) merr. (soy)

Abstract

To improve the reliability of allergy diagnosis, plant food allergens were produced as recombinant proteins. First, known and putative allergens from six species, soy, maize, rice, wheat, potato and tomato, were identified by picking highly homologous matches of EST sequences with known allergen sequences. Many putative allergens were found to be shared across species, implying that cross-reactivity might be common. Next, the prevalence of sensitization and reactive sera towards 38 plant proteins were obtained through an immunoassay with 1105 allergic sera. Soy (Fabaceae) was discovered to be the most antigenic. Finally, seven known (basic 7S globulin, I?-conglycinin I?- and I?-chains, Gly m Bd30K, trypsin inhibitor, profilin, Gly m 4) and three putative (cysteine protease, isoflavone reductase, malate dehydrogenase) soy allergens were produced as recombinants, and used in an immunoassay to screen 84 soy-specific sera. The three putative allergens were verified to be antigenic, together with four of the known allergens.