acid sequencing. However, the appearance of the protein in Fig. 2
near the molecular weight of 30 kDa corresponds to the expected
molecular weight of 28 kDa of Gal d 1.
Prior to testing the produced recombinant allergens against
allergic patients’ sera for IgE reactivity, it was necessary to test the
obtained patient sera against natural egg white to choose the most
allergic serum samples. The Western blot shown in Fig. 4 indicates
that the serum population we obtained did not react to all of the
allergens at similar intensities, with some samples showing reactivity
to only one allergen. This result suggests that egg allergy in
Australian populations may be mainly due to allergic reactivity of
Gal d 3 and 4, although individuals allergic to Gal d 1 show higher
reactivity. Patients that showed reactivity to all 4 allergens had
higher egg specific serum IgE levels, suggesting a possible correlation
between the high serum IgE levels and multi-reactivity to
different allergens. However, this correlation cannot be confirmed
without a larger number of samples to show statistical significance.
It should be noted that some individuals with serum IgE levels of
more than 0 IU/mL did not react to any of the allergens, which can
be attributed to allergy to egg yolk in these patients, an aspect not
addressed in this study. A considerable number of individuals in
the egg allergy population we used were also allergic to peanut,
and some were allergic to rye grass, however a correlation cannot
be established due to the lack of literature reporting on any possible
cross reactivity between egg allergens, peanut allergens and/or rye
grass allergens. The blot also shows that Gal d 1 has appeared at a