Background: The allergen Der p 6 from Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus has been described by substrate affinity as mite chymotrypsin.
Objective: The aim of this paper was to describe a cDNA clone encoding the allergen.
Methods: cDNA was cloned from a lambda library using oligonucleotides published for Der p 6.
Results: The clone P6.1.1 had the N-terminal amino acid residues as reported for Der p 6, and at position 189 the Ser was conserved in chymotrypsin for substrate specificity as well as the catalytic triad of His57, Asp102 and Ser195 for serine proteases. The estimated M(r) was 24.9K and it was 37% identical to the trypsin allergen Der p 3.
Conclusion: cDNA encoding Der p 6 has been described.