An
allergen-free transgenic peanut seed is produced by recombinant methods. Peanut plants are transformed with multiple copies of each of the
allergen genes, or fragments thereof, to suppress
gene expression and
allergen protein production. Alternatively, peanut plants are transformed with peanut allergen antisense genes introduced into the peanut
genome as antisense fragments, sense fragments, or combinations of both antisense and sense fragments. Peanut transgenes are under the control of the 35S
promoter, or the
promoter of the Ara h2
gene to produce antisense RNAs, sense RNAs, and double-stranded RNAs for suppressing allergen
protein production in peanut plants. A full length
genomic clone for allergen Ara h2 is isolated and sequenced. The ORF is 622 nucleotides long. The predicted encoded
protein is 207 amino acids long and includes a putative
transit peptide of 21 residues. One polyadenilation
signal is identified at position 951. Six additional stop codons are observed. A
promoter region was revealed containing a putative
TATA box located at position −72. Homologous regions were identified between Ara h2, h6, and h7, and between Ara h3 and h4, and between Ara h1P41B and Ara h1P17. The homologous regions will be used for the screening of peanut
genomic library to isolate all peanut allergen genes and for down-regulation and silencing of multiple peanut allergen genes.