ABSTRACT Christina D. Fitch. THE SERINE PROTEASE FROM THE VENOM OF POLISTES DOMINULUS CONTAINS ALLERGENIC EPITOPES. (Under the direction of Dr.

The protection introduced by immunotherapy to patients with allergies to paper wasps may be partial depending on the sensitizing species. Partial cross-reactivity between major paper wasp groups may be the reason for partial protection. Understanding patient response to venom allergens from the paper wasp groups is important to improve and develop effective treatments. Research has shown that the allergenic serine protease may be important in this partial cross-reactivity. In this study we investigated the importance of epitopes on the allergenic serine protease (Pol d 4) from Polistes dominulus. Recombinant Pol d 4 was expressed in prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems. The expression products from the eukaryotic system yielded a protein of larger size than predicted size. Two constructs of Pol d 4 were produced in the prokaryotic expression system and were of expected size. Re-folding of the prokaryotic expressed recombinant proteins was not successful. The major amino acid epitopes on Pol d 4 were predicted. Three mutant constructs were chosen, each containing two amino acid substitutions within a predicted epitopes. IgE binding was assayed by immunoblot assays using sera from European and North America