Abstract:

In order to explain cross-reactivity between peanut allergen Ara h 6 and other homologous proteins, various kinds of bioinformationcal databases, including Genbank and DiscoTope, and net tools/software, including BLAST, NPS@, Protean, Clustal x and PyMOL, were used for the epitope analysis between these proteins. It was indicated that the linear epitopes on Ara h 6 existed with high probability in the regions of AA10－15, 45 －48, 53 －60 and 116 －118, and the conformational epitopes in the regions of AA1－13, 35－51, 53－59 and 89－105. According to the prediction of linear epitopes, there were fifteen proteins might cross-react with Ara h 6, and the possibility of cross-reactivity of four of them (Ara i 6, conglutin, Ara d 6 and conglutin 8) was 100%. However, according to the prediction of conformational epitopes, the number of proteins could cross-react with Ara h 6 with high probability was 17, and the possibility of cross-reactivity of four of them (Ara i 6, conglutin, Ara d 6 and conglutin 8) was 100%. These investigations will be beneficial for understanding peanut Ara h 6 allergy and help to develop an approach for the immunologic detection of Ara h 6 in foods in the future.

Key words: Ara h 6, peanut allergy, epitopes, cross-reactivity, prediction