Allergenicity of plant defence proteins

The synthesis of defence proteins is one of the biochemical responses that plants have developed to cope with their natural enemies and with environmental stresses. Many plant defence proteins are allergenic, for example, chitinases, lipid transfer proteins, Bet v 1-like proteins, etc. The present article briefly describes the families of plant defence proteins, and emphasizes their allergenic impact as well as pre- and post-harvest technologies that can affect the allergenicity of foods of vegetable origin. (C) 2004 Elsevier SAS. Tous droits reserves.