Soybean allergens and hypoallergenic germplasm enhancement

Food allergy is a public sanitary problem which has received attention worldwide. It is becoming an increasingly interesting problem to decrease the concentration of allergens for improvement of the food security. Soybean allergens in seeds are composing of storage proteins, structure proteins, and disease-related proteins. Among them, Gly m Bd 28K, Gly m Bd 30K and Gly m Bd 60K are the major allergens located in 7S conglycinin fragments. By recognizing allergens' physicochemical property, hypersensitivity and gene structure, certain progresses had been made to reduce the concentration of allergens in soybean through food processing, traditional breeding and genetic engineering. The paper reviewed the sorts and characters of soybean allergens, the physicochemical property of the three immunodominant allergens and their gene structures. Progress in developing hypoallergenic cultivars was also discussed.