Identification of Disulfide Proteins in the Salt Soluble Fraction of Rice (Oryza sativa) Seed.

Evidence has been accumulating to suggest that disulfide bonding is one of the key causes of allergenicity. Recently we developed the "disulfide proteome", a technique for the comprehensive analysis of disulfide bonding of proteins. We applied this new technique to the rice seedʹs salt-soluble fraction, which has long been known to be allergenic. Most proteins in the fraction, including alpha-amylase/trypsin inhibitor, alpha-globulin, and glutelin fragments, have formed intramolecular disulfide bonds. Also, unknown proteins, including one sharing similarities with known allergens, had disulfide bonds, from which we can infer possible allergenicity. This is a preliminary study to screen allergens from the basis of disulfide bonding.