Assessment of the allergenicity of soluble fractions from GM and commercial genotypes of wheats

• Genetic transformation impacts the allergenicity of wheat lines.
• A wide variation exists in the amount of allergenic polypeptides among wheat cultivars.
• The differences observed for GMs are encompassed in the natural variability of conventional wheat cultivars.

Breeding has enabled the development of wheat genotypes with different quality characteristics and end uses. Despite its numerous positive properties that make it one of the most cultivated crops, wheat is known to induce allergic reactions in predisposed consumers. Genetic modification (GM) technology for crop improvement has recently emerged and its impact on allergenicity must be evaluated, as recommended by the Codex Alimentarius.Our aim was to determine whether the variation in the amount of allergenic polypeptides in five GM wheats, along with their untransformed genotypes, was equivalent to the variation observed among twenty commercial cultivars, either durum or bread wheats. Since the most important factor involved is the amount of allergenic polypeptides, we performed Enzyme-Linked Immunoabsorbent Assays with IgE from twenty-two patients suffering from food or respiratory allergy to wheat on two well characterised soluble protein fractions. Statistical analyses showed a significant effect of the genotypes and sera, both by considering GM lines and untransformed genotypes. This study leads us to conclude that a wide variation exists in the amount of allergenic polypeptides among durum and bread wheat cultivars, and that the differences observed between GM wheats and their parents are within the range of cultivated wheats.