The level of allergenicity inversely correlates with the level of the conservation of the allergen.

<p>The IgE prevalence (y-axis) in a specific allergic population was plotted against the identity level (x-axis) between the allergen and its microbial homologue and correlation evaluated by Spearman rank test. Each dot represents one allergen and the lines represent the trend line. Allergens without homologues are stacked in the identity equal to zero area.