Patent ID: 7033769

Claim:
A method for discovering at least one peptide having a specificity and/or binding affinity; to a microorganism of interest, said microorganism of interest is E. coli , said method comprising: (a) selecting an antimicrobial peptide having antimicrobial activity against and/or binding affinity to E. coli , said antimicrobial peptide is selected from the group consisting of cecropin A, SMAP-29, cecropin p1, ceratotoxin A, caezulein, PGQ and pleurocidin; (b) generating a combinatorial library of mutants of said antimicrobial peptide, each of said mutants differing from said antimicrobial peptide by amino acid substitutions, additions or deletions; (c) screening said library of mutants for those mutants that bind to E. coli; (d) determining the peptide sequences of those mutants that bind to E. coli ; and (e) repeating steps (b) through (d) for successive generations of mutants until at least one peptide displaying heightened specificity and/or affinity obtained.