Antimicrobial peptides from animals: focus on invertebrates.

antimicrobial peptides has been isolated from animals and plants during the past two decades. Three novel classes of natural antibiotics (anionic peptides, aromatic dipeptides and processed forms of oxygen-binding proteins) have recently been isolated from different vertebrate and invertebrate species. In this article, we present an overview of natural animal anti-microbials, with an emphasis on those isolated from invertebrates, and discuss their possible use as alternative drugs to chemical antibiotics.