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.