Analysis of Anti-Biofilm Activities of Extracts from Marine Invertebrate Collected from İzmir Bay (Eastern Aegean Sea)

In the maritime industry, biofouling is a severe problem and represents a serious matter of economic losses worldwide. The sizable investments are made for the prevention of biofouling by marine related sectors, especially in the paint industries. It is known that antifouling applications contain heavy metal and biocides which are hazardous for the marine environment and, for this reason, new studies are focusing on the development of environmentally and friendly paints. The main target of our investigation was the identification of natural marine compounds from tunicate and sponge species, evaluating their capability to inhibit biofilm progress which is the first step of fouling process, and their plausible usage in industrial products, too. Therefore, in this study, the antibiofilm effects of four marine invertebrates, Styela plicata, Clavelina lepadiformis, Dysidea avara and Spirastrella sp., collected in different seasons along the coasts of Izmir Bay, were evaluated. The extracts from two tunicates (Styela plicata and Clavelina lepadiformis) and a sponge (Dysidea avara) were selected due to their interesting antibiofilm capacities. A bioactive-guided isolation method allowed us to identification of the active fractions which were tested for inhibition of bacterial adhesion at different concentration. The content of the active fractions was identified by NMR spectroscopy, LC-MS and HRMS analysis.