Antibiotic peptides from higher eukaryotes: biology and applications

Gene-encoded antibiotic peptides are increasingly being recognized as effec tor molecules of host defense in plants and animals. Studies of antimicrobi al peptides are providing new insights into the dynamic interactions betwee n microbes and their hosts, and are generating new paradigms for the pathog enesis and treatment of diseases. Because antimicrobial peptides of higher eukaryotes differ structurally from conventional antibiotics produced by ba cteria and fungi, they offer novel templates for pharmaceutical compounds t hat could be effective against increasingly resistant microbes.