A Preliminary analysis of potential allergens in a GMO Rice: A Bioinformatics approach

Abstract

This study uses an in silico approach in screening nascent allergens in GMO and conventionally-bred rice. The protein sequences analyzed were taken from published microarray data from GMO and conventionally-bred rice. To determine the proteins’ potential allergenicity, we used allergen databases and algorithms such as Allermatch and Algpred. Our analysis revealed the following putative allergenic proteins in GMO rice, namely: a cysteine proteinase precursor, a putative germin A, a glycosyl hydrolase, a subtilisin-like serine proteinase and an unknown protein. These genes are related to stress and defense response, metabolism, and moving, modifying, storing, and degradation of proteins.