Vicilins: A case study in allergen pedigrees

The new data also extend the list of allergens that are potentially useful in immunotherapy, clinical screens, and immunoassays. [...]the data have relevance to the development of safe biotech crops, with respect to which it is essential to prevent the transfer of known or cross-reactive allergens between commodity crops. [...]we know that the degree of similarity between allergen and nonallergen homologs varies widely in nature. [...]there is no consensus as to what degree of sequence identity/similarity is required to or predicted to elicit clinical cross-reactivity.