Urban birches are more harmful to allergy sufferers than those growing in clean areas. This is how you can briefly summarize the results of the research conducted by scientists from Krakow. It turned out that polluted air “stresses” the trees, and they produce more allergenic protein.
“Pollen allergy is becoming an increasingly serious problem for people, especially in regions where air pollution levels are increasing due to traffic and urbanization. These factors can also influence the physiological activity of plants, causing changes in pollen allergenicity,” the scientists from Krakow write in an article published in the journal PLoS ONE. Experts from several Krakow universities looked at birches growing in several places in Lesser Poland, including heavily polluted Krakow. The results of the study may surprise you.
There are more people with pollen allergies in cities
It turned out that urban trees literally experience stress from polluted air. Paradoxically, although there is less greenery in cities than outside them, urban birches are more harmful for allergy sufferers. At the same time, epidemiological data indicate that there are more people in cities with inhalation allergies - “pollen”, i.e. reaction to natural plant allergens. And this is not only a European trend. For example, in Japan, the number of people allergic to cedar pollen has increased after a large area of cedar forests was cleared and a highway was built.
“We solved this problem in Krakow, where the problem of polluted air is acute. We measured the concentration of pollen and studied both the pollen itself and birches growing in natural conditions. We tested the allergenicity of birch pollen, the most allergenic protein of which is Betv1 - named after the Latin name for drooping birch - Betula pendula, ”explains Dr. hub. biologist Dorota Myszkowska from the Jagiellonian University College of Medicine (UJ CM), co-author of the paper.
Tree pollen is itself a molecule that a plant uses to reproduce. It consists of various types of active substances - including proteins and compounds of proteins with sugars: glycoproteins. In our climate zone, it is the aforementioned Betv1 protein that is responsible for the majority of allergies in people with pollen allergy (right after grass pollen, which is the most common cause of plant pollen allergy).
Urban birch trees with increased concentration of stress protein
“The concentration of allergens was found to be the highest in Krakow sites, which are particularly prone to environmental pollution (in particular, particulate matter and nitrogen oxides). Outside the city, it was clearly smaller,” says Dr. Myszkowska.
Why is this happening? Simply put, urban birches had higher concentrations of plant stress protein. As scientists explain, environmental pollution can become a stressful situation for plants. This factor could cause a protective reaction and the secretion of protective proteins. This creates a vicious circle. In response to stress, plants secrete protective proteins, and with them also those that are allergens. Therefore, in an urban environment, more people may be allergic to birch.
Source: Wprost
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