Bio Discussion---Due in 2 hours

Peptides: Friend or Foe?

A recent trend in which peptides were seen to be great antibacterial agents has been gaining strength. Why is this so important? For immunocompromised patients, peptides were seen to be a safe and effective treatment against infections as the peptide targets the infection without hurting the cell itself.

There are two parts to this Discussion. For the first part, you will be doing some research on the basic concepts of an antibacterial peptide. For the second part, you will think critically about the future of peptide research.

Part 1: Antibacterial peptide basics

Use the peptide database listed here to answer the following question:

Bactibase. (2013). Bactibase database dedicated to bacteriocins.Retrieved from  http://bactibase.pfba-lab-tun.org/antiinfective.php

1. Choose one antibacterial peptide from the Bactibase database. Make sure that another classmate has not already chosen this peptide. Then, provide the information for the following categories:

· Name

· Mode of action (description)

· Producer organism

· Target organism

Part 2: Peptide research

For this part, you will review and evaluate research on the peptide you chose.

National Center for Biotechnology Information. (n.d.) Welcome to NCBI. Retrieved from  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Starting with the NCBI website, conduct a search for your peptide. Enter the name of your peptide into the search field. The search results will give you a list of articles on that involve your peptide and will help you answer these questions:

1. Review the abstracts for the articles you found; What do these articles tell you about your peptide and how it is used in the research?

2. What are the current research trends for the peptide you chose?

List your sources of research in APA format at the end of your post.