title: Plant allergens and pathogenesis-related proteins. What do they have in common?
abstract: In the recent past a great number of proteins causing type 1 allergic reactions in humans have been isolated and characterised. The main sources containing allergens are plants, mites, fungal spores and insects. Plant-derived allergens may either be taken in from the upper respiratory tract or they are present in a vast range of plant food causing food allergic reactions. Compared to the enormous amount of different plant proteins only a small number out of them are identified as a an allergen at present. Looking at the allergen encoding sequences, relationships by sequence similarity can be found quite frequently to a restricted number of plant protein families. Predominantly, these protein families are seed storage proteins, structural proteins and proteins involved in the defence-related system - pathogenesis-related proteins. In the following, a short overview of a number of pathogenesis-related protein families is presented in relation to the already known homologous plant allergens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hoffmann-Sommergruber
mesh_terms: D000485:Allergens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D052179:Antigens, Plant; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D002688:Chitinases / Q000276:immunology; D043326:Glucan 1,3-beta-Glucosidase; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D010944:Plants / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D001617:beta-Glucosidase / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens; D052179:Antigens, Plant; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins; C511920:lipid transfer proteins, plant; D002688:Chitinases; D001617:beta-Glucosidase; D043326:Glucan 1,3-beta-Glucosidase