Antimicrobial peptides are a new class of antibiotics discovered recent years, which are encoded by genes of organisms and chemically peptides, so they are also called as peptide antibiotics.

• 迄今已从动物、植物、昆虫等生物体内分离到肽抗生素300多种，新的肽抗生素还在不断被发现，有的类别还发现存在多种突变体。 不同种类、不同突变体的肽抗生素活性有不同程度差异。