title: Allergenicity assessment of genetically modified cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) resistant tomato (Solanum lycopersicon).
abstract: Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) has been identified as the causal agent of several disease epidemics in most countries of the world. Insect-mediated virus diseases, such as those caused by CMV, caused remarkable loss of tomato (Solanum lycopersicon) production in Taiwan. With expression of the CMV coat protein gene (Cmvcp) in a local popular tomato cultivar L4783, transgenic tomato line R8 has showed consistent CMV resistance through T(0) to T(8). In this report, the allergenicity of the CMV coat protein (CMV cp) expressed in transgenic tomato R8 was assessed by investigation of the expression of the transgene source of protein, sequence similarity with known allergens, and resistance to pepsin hydrolysis. There is no known account for either the CMV or its coat protein being an allergen. The result of a bioinformatic search also showed no significant homology between CMV cp and any known allergen. The pepsin-susceptible property of recombinant CMV cp was revealed by a simulated gastric fluid (SGF) assay. Following the most recent FAO/WHO decision tree, all results have indicated that CMV cp was a protein with low possibility to be an allergen and the transgenic tomato R8 should be considered as safe as its host.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology and Biochemistry, College of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, No 1, Sec 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chih-Hui
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Fuu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sheu
authors.forename: Hsin-Tang
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Tzu-Ming
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Pan
mesh_terms: D000594:Amino Acid Oxidoreductases / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D018553:Cucumis sativus / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D017799:Cucumovirus / Q000235:genetics*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D030841:Food, Genetically Modified; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology*; D051379:Mice; D030781:Organisms, Genetically Modified; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012367:RNA, Viral; C036483:T-DNA; D000594:Amino Acid Oxidoreductases; C021883:nopaline synthase