Cover: Indolicidin appears to exert its antimicrobial action by a mechanism different from that used by the well-studied lytic peptides {see article by Hsu et al. in this issue [Nucleic Acids Res. (2005), 33, 4053–4064]}. When the MIC is lower than the lytic concentration, indolicidin enters the cytoplasm to exert its action and that the changes in cytoplasmic permeability may reflect the transport of the peptide across the membrane. After the transient perturbation and transfer to the cytoplasm, indolicidin then can act as inhibitors of DNA synthesis by binding to DNA or a protein involved in the process.
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