Identification Of Allergic Epitopes Of Soybean Beta-Conglycinin In Different Animal Species

Soybean can cause allergy in both humans and animals. The herein study aims to identify the antigenic determinants (epitopes) of beta-conglycinin that lead to allergy in different animal species (swine, bovine, and rats). The epitopes of beta-conglycinin were identified through co-immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry. The binding abilities of seven identified epitope peptides to allergic sera of three animal species were compared by ELISA and dot-blot techniques. Some epitope peptides could be recognized by the three animal allergic sera, while most epitopes showed some differences in binding abilities to the different animal sera. The strongest reaction using swine sera was detected with peptides alpha 2, beta 2, and beta 3, but the biggest sensitive regions for bovine and rats were peptides alpha 2, beta 1, and beta 4. Most epitopes of beta-conglycinin exhibited different binding abilities to the three animal sera, in which the biggest sensitive regions were peptides alpha 2, beta 2, and beta 3 for swine, but peptides alpha 2, beta 1, and beta 4 were detected for bovine and rats.