Patent ID: 7595173

Claim:
A method for producing an antimicrobial peptide from 2 to 100 amino acids in length in a microbial host cell, wherein said microbial host cell is a member of the genus Pseudomonas , comprising: (a) expressing at least one nucleic acid in the microbial host cell, wherein the nucleic acid encodes a fusion polypeptide comprising: at least one carrier polypeptide linked by a cleavable linker to at least one peptide multimer, wherein the carrier polypeptide is a hydrolase, wherein the peptide multimer comprises at least two antimicrobial peptides, wherein each antimicrobial peptide has a net positive charge, and each antimicrobial peptide is linked in tandem to another antimicrobial peptide by a cleavage site comprising an Asp-Pro dipeptide, wherein the charge of the carrier polypeptide does not offset the positive charge of the antimicrobial peptide, and wherein the peptide units linked in tandem have the same orientation; (b) cleaving the peptide multimer at the cleavage site; and (c) isolating the antimicrobial peptide.