**Author details**

10 Current Insights in Pollen Allergens

al, and Zienkiewicz et al

**5. Conclusions and future perspectives** 

numerous cDNA and peptide/glucan sequences from Ole e 1 (Napoli et al, 2008; Hamman Khalifa et al, 2010; Castro et al, 2012; Jiménez-López et al, 2011; Soleimani et al, 2012a,b), Ole e 5 (Zafra, 2007), Ole e 2 (Jiménez López, 2008; Morales et al, 2008; Jiménez-López et al, 2012b), and Ole e 11 (Jiménez-López et al, 2012a). Moreover, the reactivity of a broad panel of olive pollen cultivar extracts to diverse patient' sera has been also analyzed in Jordan (Jaradat et al, 2011). Recently, a novel multiplex method for the simultaneous detection and relative quantification of pollen allergens has been set up (Morales 2012; Morales et al, 2012). This method will help to investigate pollen allergen polymorphism within cultivars in combination with patient's reactivity, by notably improving the specificity and capacity of the biochemical and immunological assays. The present book also includes remarkable analyses of olive varietal polymorphism in those chapters by Jimenez-Lopez et al, Morales et

The past and recent developments in the analysis of the differential allergenicity of pollens from heterogeneous infraspecific taxonomic ranks described above, confirm the need of rethinking current strategies for basic research on pollen allergen characterization, and the design of diagnosis and specific immunotherapy approaches. These issues, raised and discussed initially by us (Alché et al, 2007) for olive pollen allergens, seem to be valid for a broader number of species, as stated here. Extensive pollen allergen polymorphism is known to represent a general feature over the plant kingdom. The limitation of the study of this polymorphism just to the level of species represents a restriction which may limit both basic knowledge and more importantly the efficacy and the future development of strategies to detect and contest human pollen allergy. Although the use of marker allergens for order, genera or even plant families may represent an invaluable tool (Mothes et al, 2004), relevant differences in patient's reactivity occur even among closerelated taxonomical ranks (e.g. van Ree 2002; Asero et al, 2005; Fenaille et al, 2009; Wallner et al, 2009a,b; Jaradat et al, 2011) therefore determining that even close allergenic compositions are not always "fully equivalent". The analysis of allergenic variability in infraspecific taxonomical ranks should be considered a "must" that can be easily incorporated into most developing and evolving trends in allergy analysis and clinics, namely the design of highly specific and personalized natural extracts, hypoallergens, the design and production of recombinant allergens, hybrid molecules, high-throughput diagnosis, new forms of allergen administration and release, the analysis of allergen cross-

reactivity etc. (Schenk et al, 2006, 2011; Gao et al, 2008; Wallner et al, 2009a,b).

Agricultural and environmental strategies to reduce the impact of pollen allergy involving the use of differential infraspecific taxonomic ranks are not to be discarded either. They may include the primary screening of relatively less allergenic varieties as proposed for wheat, buckwheat and other food sources (Nair and Adachi, 2002; Nakamura et al, 2005; Spangenberg et al, 2006), and the future design of varieties/hybrids with reduced pollen production, limited period of flowering, or even androsteril characteristics in a similar way Juan de Dios Alché\* , Adoración Zafra, Jose Carlos Jiménez-López, Antonio Jesús Castro and María Isabel Rodríguez-García *Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology of Plants, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Granada, Spain* 

#### Sonia Morales

*Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology of Plants, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Granada, Spain Proteomic Research Service, Hospital Universitario San Cecilio, Granada, Spain* 

Fernando Florido *Allergy Service, Hospital Universitario San Cecilio, Granada, Spain* 
