The present invention relates to a method of producing a peptide consisting of the amino acids 63 to 110 of dermcidin (SEQ ID NO: 3) comprising (a) culturing a host cell carrying a nucleic acid molecule encoding the peptide in an expressible form, and (b) optionally isolating the peptide from the culture. Furthermore, the invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a fusion protein comprising or consisting of (a) a peptide heterologous with regard to dermcidin protein-tag and, C-terminally thereof (b) a peptide having the antimicrobial activity of dermcidin wherein the fusion protein contains an arginine residue located immediately N-terminally of the peptide of (b).
