Plant Antimicrobial Peptides and Bacteriocins: Emerging Strategies Against Biofilms

Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) are widely distributed and serve as innate immune responses in various organisms to combat a broad range of pathogens. Bacteriocins are narrow-spectrum antibacterial agents that are found to exhibit bactericidal effects against closely related bacteria of the strain that produces them. The expression of AMPs in plants is considered to be induced by the invasion of pathogenic microorganisms. Thus, the AMPs in plants are part of the immunological response to counter the infection caused by a variety of microorganisms. Biofilms pose a significant challenge in treatment due to their ability to adapt and develop resistance to antibiotics, which is more pronounced than their planktonic counterparts. In this review, AMPs are being explored as potential alternative agents to conventional antibiotics in the quest to combat chronic infections caused by biofilms. AMPs can be potentially effective strategy for fighting infections caused by biofilms. This is because many AMPs specifically target the microbial membrane, making them potentially effective even against cells that are not actively metabolizing. We have also explored the possible mechanisms involved in the eradication of biofilm, which include interference with cell wall and cell membrane-related processes, inhibiting the attachment of microorganisms to the surface, and disrupting cell-to-cell communication within the biofilm.