Lighting up Mycobacteria with membrane-targeting peptides

Abstract

We report a series of fluorescent probes based on mycobacteria membrane-associated disruption peptide, containing either L- or D-amino acids which were originally designed to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis via membrane disruption. These peptides were decorated with "always on" and environmentally sensitive fluorophores and showed the rapid and efficient labelling of Mycobacterium smegmatis, with labelling of Mycobacterium tuberculosis demonstrated by two of the probes.