PLANT ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES: A NOVEL APPROACH AGAINST DRUG RESISTANT MICROORGANISMS

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are the crucial factors, which plays an important role in host defense mechanisms. AMPs are ubiquitous and found in diverse organisms ranging from microorganisms to animals. Plants are the precious source of natural antimicrobial molecules including antimicrobial peptides known as plant antimicrobial peptides (PAMPs). PAMPs can be divided into different families based on their, molecular weight, activity against different microbes, structure, charge of molecules, content of disulphide bond and mechanism of action. Based on number of cysteine residues and disulfide bonds, PAMPs are categorized into six main families. These peptides may lead to degradation of nutrients that are specific or essential for microbes to grow, interfering with microbial membrane or by conflicting with their metabolism. PAMPs exert multiple antimicrobial activities which includes membrane permeabillization, interference with DNA, RNA and protein synthesis that might provide a suitable approach to prevent bacteria from developing resistance. This review provides an overview of all the major plant AMP families including their structure, function, mechanism of action and antimicrobial activity.