Patent ID: 8003348

Claim:
A method for producing an antimicrobial peptide, comprising: (i) preparing a bicistronic DNA construct having a first cistron and a second cistron, wherein the first cistron comprises a gene encoding an acidic peptide and the second cistron comprises a gene encoding a basic antimicrobial peptide, wherein the expression of each gene is under the control of a single promoter, wherein the first cistron comprises the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:5 immediately 5′ to a termination codon of the first cistron, and wherein the acidic peptide is capable of substantially neutralizing positive charges of the basic antimicrobial peptide; (ii) inserting the bicistronic DNA construct into an expression vector and transforming a microorganism with the expression vector to express the basic antimicrobial peptide and the acidic peptide as an inclusion body; and (iii) recovering the inclusion body from the microorganism and separating the basic antimicrobial peptide from the acidic peptide based on charge differences, thereby producing an antimicrobial peptide.