REDUCTION OF 14-16 KDA ALLERGENIC PROTEINS IN TRANSGENIC RICE PLANTS BY ANTISENSE GENE

An antisense gene strategy was applied to suppress the 14-16 kDa aller gen gene expression in maturing rice seeds, Gene constructs producing antisense RNAs of the 16 kDa allergen under the control of some rice s eed-specific promoters were introduced into rice by electroporation. I mmunoblot and RNA blot analyses of the seeds from the transgenic rice plants using the allergen-specific monoclonal antibody and a sequence- specific antisense RNA probe demonstrated that the 14-16 kDa allergen proteins and their transcripts of the seeds from several transgenic li nes were present in much lower in amounts than those of the seeds from parental wild-type rice, The high levels of reduction observed were s tably inherited in at least three generations.