Antimicrobial peptides from the Asian harvester ants of the genus Monomorium: In vitro screening for antimicrobial activity

Insect antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have received considerable attention in the last two decades as potential scaffolds for synthetic antimicrobial compounds with wide ranging applications. Among insects, the hymenopterans comprising of ants, wasps and bees are well known for their extraordinary diversity of chemical defenses. In the present study, three species of ants of the genus Monomorium (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) were screened for their antimicrobial peptides. The whole body extracts of worker ants were prepared using polar solvents and screened for antimicrobial activity against standard bacterial strains. Active crude extracts were subjected to fractionation using RP-HPLC to generate the peptide profile of the extracts. Peptides ranging in mass from 500 Da to 3500 Da were identified using MALDI-TOF analysis. The three species of ants used in this study were found to be a promising source for bioprospecting antimicrobial peptides.