title: Allergenicity assessment of Allium sativum leaf agglutinin, a potential candidate protein for developing sap sucking insect resistant food crops.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mannose-binding Allium sativum leaf agglutinin (ASAL) is highly antinutritional and toxic to various phloem-feeding hemipteran insects. ASAL has been expressed in a number of agriculturally important crops to develop resistance against those insects. Awareness of the safety aspect of ASAL is absolutely essential for developing ASAL transgenic plants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Following the guidelines framed by the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization, the source of the gene, its sequence homology with potent allergens, clinical tests on mammalian systems, and the pepsin resistance and thermostability of the protein were considered to address the issue. No significant homology to the ASAL sequence was detected when compared to known allergenic proteins. The ELISA of blood sera collected from known allergy patients also failed to show significant evidence of cross-reactivity. In vitro and in vivo assays both indicated the digestibility of ASAL in the presence of pepsin in a minimum time period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With these experiments, we concluded that ASAL does not possess any apparent features of an allergen. This is the first report regarding the monitoring of the allergenicity of any mannose-binding monocot lectin having insecticidal efficacy against hemipteran insects.
authors: Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
authors: Hossain Ali
authors: HA
authors: Mondal
authors: Dipankar
authors: D
authors: Chakraborti
authors: Pralay
authors: P
authors: Majumder
authors: Pampa
authors: P
authors: Roy
authors: Amit
authors: A
authors: Roy
authors: Swati Gupta
authors: SG
authors: Bhattacharya
authors: Sampa
authors: S
authors: Das
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000485:Allergens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D019295:Computational Biology; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics*; D003429:Cross Reactions; D005243:Feces; D005260:Female; D005737:Garlic / Q000737:chemistry*; D006430:Hemiptera / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000097:blood; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010434:Pepsin A / Q000378:metabolism; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry*; D037121:Plant Lectins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D055550:Protein Stability; D021381:Protein Transport; D059748:Proteolysis; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens; D037121:Plant Lectins; D007073:Immunoglobulin E; D010434:Pepsin A