The complete amino acid sequence of Ra5, a ragweed pollen allergen, has been determined. Allergen Ra5 is a low molecular weight protein of 45 residues derived from Ambrosia elatior, the short ragweed. It contains no detectable carbohydrate or lipid and has four disulfide bridges. The total structure was determined on 1.4 mumol of material and indicates that structural analysis is increasingly possible on relatively small amounts of highly purified material when a combination of automated and manual sequencing techniques and highly sensitive detection systems is employed. This represents the first complete amino acid sequence of a ragweed allergen and it should provide a basis for many structure-function correlative experiments in the field of immediate hypersensitivity.

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