Figure 2.

Wheat allergens: effect of molecular modifications on wheat allergenicity in animal models. Wheat contains 10%–18% protein by a dry weight basis. The top part of the figure shows the relative composition of four groups of wheat protein allergens. These include gluten—alcohol-soluble gliadins (or prolamins) (30%–40%) and acetic acid or alkali-soluble glutenins (or glutelins) (45%–50%), and non-gluten proteins, such as water-soluble albumins (10%–12%) and saline-soluble globulins (5%–8%). The bottom part of the figure shows the effect of molecular changes induced by chemical and enzyme treatment on wheat protein allergenicity in animal models.