The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Volume 121, Issue 4 , Pages 847-852.e7 , April 2008

Allergens are distributed into few protein families and possess a restricted number of biochemical functions

  • Christian Radauer, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathophysiology, Center for Physiology, Pathophysiology and Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
    • ,
  • Merima Bublin, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathophysiology, Center for Physiology, Pathophysiology and Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
    • ,
  • Stefan Wagner, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathophysiology, Center for Physiology, Pathophysiology and Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
    • ,
  • Adriano Mari, MD

      Affiliations

    • Allergy Data Laboratories, Latina, Italy
    • Center for Clinical and Experimental Allergology, IDI-IRCCS, Rome, Italy
    • ,
  • Heimo Breiteneder, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Pathophysiology, Center for Physiology, Pathophysiology and Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
    • Corresponding Author InformationReprint requests: Heimo Breiteneder, PhD, Department of Pathophysiology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria.

Received 29 October 2007 ,Revised 22 January 2008 ,Accepted 23 January 2008.

  • Image Result

    The 15 protein families with the highest number of allergens classified by source (A) and route of exposure (B). Numbers in Fig 1, B, differ because of multiple or missing routes of exposure for some

    The 15 protein families with the highest number of allergens classified by source (A) and route of exposure (B). Numbers in Fig 1, B, differ because of multiple or missing routes of exposure for some allergens. C, Protein family distribution of randomly selected sequences. ox., Oxidase; oxred., oxidoreductase; PD, periplasmic domain; RuBisCo. ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxidase; TD, transmembrane domain; term., terminal; NADH, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.

  • Image Result
    Sequence conservation among homologous allergens. Amino acid sequences of allergens from the prolamin superfamily (A), the tropomyosin family (B), and the EF-hand superfamily (C) were aligned, and nei

    Sequence conservation among homologous allergens. Amino acid sequences of allergens from the prolamin superfamily (A), the tropomyosin family (B), and the EF-hand superfamily (C) were aligned, and neighbor-joining phylogenetic trees were generated. Percentage sequence identities to reference allergens (bold) are encoded by gray shades.

 Supported by grant SFB-F01802 from the Austrian Science Fund (to H.B.) and an Austrian Programme for Advanced Research and Technology grant from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (to S.W.).

 Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: A. Mari is the responsible administrative contact for Allergy Data Laboratories. The rest of the authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.

PII: S0091-6749(08)00163-2

doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2008.01.025

The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Volume 121, Issue 4 , Pages 847-852.e7 , April 2008

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