High-throughput discovery of human antimicrobial peptide activators of Salmonella Typhimurium PhoPQ

We developed a surface-displayed library of 117 human antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and over 3000 human AMP variants in a laboratory E. coli strain expressing PhoP and PhoQ from Salmonella Typhimurium. We used sort-seq (fluorescence-activated cell sorting followed by next-generation sequencing) to characterize PhoPQ activation by these surface-displayed AMPs. Overall design: Initial assessment of library diversity, sort-seq characterization