Antimicrobial peptides from Actinobacteria: Current status and future prospects

Abstract Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are oligopeptides with five to over a hundred amino acids. AMPs have a broad spectrum of targeted organisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. Rapid killing effect is the important feature of AMPs which can kill the bacterial cells in seconds after the initial contact with cell membrane. AMPs are also known to enhance the activities of antibiotics through synergistic effects. Members of the phylum actinobacteria are the tremendous source for bioactive natural products notably antibiotics. There are several AMPs reported from actinobacteria. Some important class of AMPs reported from actinobacteria include lipopeptides, diketopiperazines, dimeric peptides, nucleosidyl peptides, thioamide-containing peptides, thiopeptides, lasso peptides, and typical cyclic peptides have been illustrated. Most of the AMPs from actinobacteria are produced from the genus Streptomyces followed by Nocardia, Nocardiopsis, Micromonospora, and others. There are several actinobacterial genera still explored for AMPs. AMPs from actinobacteria mainly exhibited antibacterial activity followed by antifungal and anti-TB activity. There are few studies reported the antiparasitic and antiviral activities. This chapter deals in depth of these diverse AMPs from actinobacteria and their possibilities of being translated into commercially useful and biomedical products.