Update of the WHO/IUIS Allergen Nomenclature Database based on analysis of allergen sequences

Abstract

The IUIS Allergen Nomenclature Sub-Committee, under the auspices of the World Health Organization and the International Union of Immunological Societies, maintains the systematic nomenclature of allergenic proteins and publishes a database of approved allergen names on its Web site, www.allergen.org. In this paper, we summarize updates of allergen names approved at the meetings of the committee in 2011 through 2013. These changes reflect recent progress in identification, cloning, and sequencing of allergens. The goals of this update were to increase consistency in the classification of allergens, isoallergens, and variants and in the incorporation of the evolutionary classification of proteins into allergen nomenclature, while keeping changes of established names to a minimum in the interest of continuity. Allergens for which names have been updated include respiratory allergens from birch and ragweed pollen, midge larvae, and horse dander; food allergens from peanut, cow's milk, and tomato; and cereal grain allergens. The IUIS Allergen Nomenclature Sub-Committee encourages researchers to use these updated allergen names in future publications.The official nomenclature of allergenic proteins is based on the Linnaean binominal nomenclature identifying genus and species of all organisms and was first published in 1986 (1) and revised in 1994 (2-6). The allergen nomenclature is maintained by the IUIS Allergen Nomenclature Sub-Committee under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). The committee maintains the database of approved allergen names (www.allergen.org), which has developed from a plain text list to a fully functional, searchable database. In order to maintain a consistent allergen nomenclature that complies with the guidelines established by the subcommittee, researchers are required to submit newly described allergens to the Allergen Nomenclature Sub-Committee before submitting their manuscript to a journal for consideration for publication. Submissions are kept confidential by the subcommittee, and no specific information other than the name of the new allergen will be disclosed on the Web site before publication. The submission form is available at www.allergen.org.Allergen names are composed of an abbreviation of the scientific name of its source (genus: 3-4 letters; species: 1-2 letters) and an Arabic numeral, for example Der p 1 for the first allergen to be described from the house dust mite Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus. Originally, new allergens were assigned consecutive numbers. During the past decades, the increase in sequence data together with advances in bioinformatics made it possible to classify allergens into protein families whose members are evolutionary related, have Allergy 69 (2014) 413-419

Structural Biology of Peanut Allergens

“…According to the Allergen Nomenclature Sub-Committee of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) (www.allergen.org) (Radauer et al, 2014), twelve allergens belong to the Arachis hypogaea (Peanut) species. Protein sequences of allergens, including their isoforms, were downloaded from UniProt (UniProt, 2014).…”

Databases and Associated Bioinformatic Tools in Studies of Food Allergens, Epitopes and Haptens – a Review

“…At present (May 2017), this database includes the following categories of organisms along with the number of allergens shown in brackets belonging to a given category: Arthropods (252), Chordates (82), Cnidarians (1), Molluscs (4), Nematodes (18), Ascomycota (86), Basidiomycota (23), Zygomycota (2), monocotyledonous plants (97), dicotyledonous plants (292), and coniferous plants (18). To fi nd information in the database, the name (common or systematic) of the allergen or source of its origin should be used as a query [Radauer et al, 2014].…”

Navigating through the Jungle of Allergens: Features and Applications of Allergen Databases

“…Variants of an isoallergen are defined as sequences with >90% identity. For a more detailed description of the nomenclature, the reader is referred to the original nomenclature publications and several more recent articles that provide updates on certain aspects of allergen nomenclature [7,8,9]. …”