Identification of Novel Endochitinase Class I Based Allergens.

Objective: Bioinformatics analyses have been becoming important research tools in the field of life science since 2000. New tools have been developed for the detection of allergens in food sources. This study investigated potential allergen proteins similar to the endochitinase class 1(Pers a 1) protein found in avocado using bioinformatics analysis tools. Materials and Methods: The potential allergens were examined with four different in silico tools: Clustal W for multiple sequence comparison, Swiss-MODEL for homology modeling, ProtParam for comparing protein parameters, and AlgPred for allergen prediction. Results: In silico analyses revealed high rates of similarities in protein sequences among the studied species. The highest percent identity was found in Cinnamomum micranthum f. kanehirae as 97.55 while the lowest percent identity was found in Diospyros kaki as 70.23. It is very important to note that 9 of the 10 potential allergen species investigated are plats consumed in daily life and these species were identified as allergens. According to the algorithm of BLAST search on allergen representative peptides (ARPs), ARPs were found in eight potential allergen proteins except for Prunus avium and Citrus unshiu. The ARP sequence related to Persea americana is LQLTWNYNYGAAGNSIGFNGLSNP. Conclusion: People who are allergic to avocado (Persea americana) may be advised to be careful while consuming foods such as Phoenix dactylifera, Allium sativum, Citrus unshiu, Diospyros kaki, and Spinacia oleracea. The present paper can be considered as a model study for understanding allergens in foods by using in silico tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]