Integrated multi-omics and serological profiling identifies five immunodominant allergens from the high-abundance protein repertoire of Haliotis discus hannai

Abstract

As the allergens of Haliotis discus hannai (HDH) and their role in human allergy remain limited, we employed an integrated multi-omics strategy combining transcriptome assembly, genome-guided proteogenomics, and quantitative proteomics to systematically profile its allergens, followed by immunobinding assays with allergic sera samples. A high-quality genome-transcriptome assembly predicted 53,245 protein-coding genes, from which proteomic sequencing identified 3916 reliably expressed proteins. Cross-referencing with authoritative allergen databases identified 37 high-abundance allergens, revealing sequence homology across mollusks and crustaceans. Dot-blot and Western-blot assays of 90 sera resolved six IgE-reactive bands, corresponding to a polymer and five allergens: paramyosin (PM), arginine kinase (AK), tropomyosin (TM), triosephosphate isomerase (TIM), and fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (FBA). Among these, the five allergens exhibited high seropositivity, confirming their immunodominance. Denaturant treatments suggested that PM and TM were likely primarily linear allergens, whereas AK was probably predominantly conformational, accounting for the higher detection rate in Dot-blot. Structural modeling and B-cell epitope predictions indicated that PM and TM possessed simple α-helix-dominated structures harboring mainly linear epitopes, while AK, TIM, and FBA exhibited more complex folds with additional conformational epitopes. This study provided the first comprehensive high-abundance allergen landscape of HDH and identified its immunodominant allergens, offering a molecular basis for precise diagnostics.