Plant food allergens--structural and functional aspects of allergenicity.

The three dominating plant food allergen groups belong to the prolamin and cupin superfamilies and to the family 10 of pathogenesis-related proteins. The prolamin superfamily comprises allergenic 2S albumins, nonspecific lipid transfer proteins and cereal alpha-amylase/trypsin inhibitors. These allergens have related structures and are stable to thermal processing and proteolysis. The cupin superfamily comprises the allergenic 7S and 11S globulin storage proteins from peanuts, soybean and tree nuts which are heat stable and can form immunogenicity enhancing aggregates. The Bet v 1 family of allergens includes tree pollinosis-associated food allergens with low stability which induce the symptoms of the oral allergy syndrome.