Complete Amino Acid Sequence of a Lolium perenne (Perennial Rye Grass) Pollen Allergen, Lol p II

The complete amino acid sequence of a Lolium perenne (rye grass) pollen allergen, Lol p II was determined by automated Edman degradation of the protein and selected fragments. Cleavage of the protein by enzymatic and chemical techniques established an unambiguous sequence for the protein. Lol p II contains 97 amino acid residues, with a calculated molecular weight of 10,882. The protein lacks cysteine and glutamine and shows no evidence of glycosylation. Theoretical predictions by Fraga's (Fraga, S. (1982) Can. J. Chem. 60, 2606–2610) and Hopp and Woods' (Hopp, T. P., and Woods, K. R. (1981) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 78, 3824–3828) methods indicate the presence of four hydrophilic regions, which may contribute to sequential or parts of conformational B-cell epitopes. Analysis of amphipathic regions by Berzofsky's method indicates the presence of a highly amphipathic region, which may contain, or contribute to, an Ia/Tcell epitope. This latter segment of Lol p II was found to be highly homologous with an antibody-binding segment of the major rye allergen Lol p I and may explain why immune responsiveness to both the allergens is associated with HLA-DR3.