Almost 90% of grass pollen-allergic patients are sensitized against group 5 grass pollen allergens. We isolated a monoclonal human IgE Fab out of a combinatorial library prepared from lymphocytes of a grass pollen-allergic patient and studied its interaction with group 5 allergens. The IgE Fab cross-reacted with group 5A isoallergens from several grass and corn species. By allergen gene fragmen...

Pollen mother cells of the lily (Lilium speciosum) were found to have a histone-H1-like protein (PMCP) not detected in other tissues. The PMCP appears from the late S-G(2) period of premeiosis and is present in mature pollen. PMCP and H1 were extracted from pollen mother cells with 5% perchloric acid and isolated by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The amino acid compositio...

BACKGROUND The efficacy of Lactobacillus paracasei NCC 2461 in modulating allergic rhinitis was previously evaluated in two exploratory clinical studies. Oral administration with NCC 2461 reduced specific subjective symptoms following nasal provocation tests with controlled grass pollen allergen concentrations. Our aim was to confirm the anti-allergic effect of NCC 2461 in grass pollen allergic...

Pollen-mediated gene flow was measured in two populations of black cottonwood using direct (paternity analysis) and indirect (correlated paternity) methods. The Marchel site was an area with an approximate radius of 250 m in a large continuous stand growing in a mesic habitat in western Oregon. In contrast, the Vinson site was an area with a radius of approximately 10 km and consisted of small,...

The objective of this work was to characterize the morphology and viability of the pollen of 15 genotypes of castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) and to generate information that can assist in the selection of highly promising male parents for future use in genetic improvement programs aimed at producing seeds for oil extraction. Acetolysis and scanning electron microscopy was used to characterize...

Several species of the Erica genus are broadly represented in northwest Spain, being among the shrubs that form the substitution stage following forest degradation as a result of human activity, caused mainly by fire or other antrophic causes. Therefore airborne pollen from Erica is frequent. From 1995 to 2002, an aerobiological study of Ericaceae family pollen was undertaken in the atmosphere ...

Thermal conditions at the beginning of the year determine the timing of pollen seasons of early flowering trees. The aims of this study were to quantify the relationship between the tree pollen season start dates and the thermal conditions just before the beginning of the season and to construct models predicting the start of the pollen season in a given year. The study was performed in Krakow ...

Long-term ecological data play a vital role in ecological conservation and restoration, however, using information from local forest soil pollen data to assist restoration remains a challenge. This study analyzed two data sets, including 1) surface soil pollen (0-5 cm) and current vegetation data from four near-natural communities and four plantations, and 2) fossil pollen from soil profiles (0...

Based on qualitative and quantitative melissopalynological analyses, 19 Chinese honeys were classified by botanical origin to determine their floral sources. The honey samples were collected during 2010-2011 from the central region of Shanxi Province, North China. A diverse spectrum of 61 pollen types from 37 families was identified. Fourteen samples were classified as unifloral, whereas the re...

Pooideae species. While for several species the most important allergens (group 1 and group 5) have been identified, other allergens have either not been identified or sequence data are still missing. We have used mass spectrometry (MS) together with genetic and immunological methods to identify allergens in various grass pollen extracts. Methods: Pollen extracts of 6 different grass species (P...