[Natural allergens and recombinant allergens]

Since forty years, many allergens from different species responsible for allergies, have been purified and sometimes identified using classical methods of protein chemistry. For the first time in 1988, molecular biology technologies were applied to allergens, namely to a major allergen of the mite, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus. During the recent years many other allergens have been produced as recombinant proteins expressed in bacteria or yeast leading to the growing family of recombinant allergens. This talk presents a general view on the allergen cloning procedure and gives an account on future applications of recombinant allergens in both fields of fundamental and practical allergy.