The development of antifouling (AF) technology for marine environments is an area of intense research given the severe economic and ecological effects of marine biofouling. Preliminary data from in vitro assays is frequently used to screen the performance of AF coatings. It is intuitive that microbial composition plays a major role in surface colonization. The rationale behind this study is to investigate whether using a mixed population for the in vitro tests yields substantially different results than using single strains during initial screening. A polymeric coating was tested against single- and dual-species cultures of two common microfouler organisms for 49 days. A bacterium (Pseudoaltermonas tunicata) and a cyanobacterium (Cyanobium sp. LEGE 10375) were used in this study. Linear regression analysis revealed that Cyanobium sp. biofilms were significantly associated with a higher number of cells, wet weight, thickness, and biovolume compared to dual-species biofilms. P. tunicata alone had a biofilm growth kinetics similar to dual-species biofilms, although the P. tunicata–Cyanobium sp. mixture developed less dense and thinner biofilms compared to both single-species biofilms. Cyanobium sp. LEGE 10375 biofilms provided the worst-case scenario, i.e., the conditions that caused higher biofilm amounts on the surface material under test. Therefore, it is likely that assessing the AF performance of new coatings using the most stringent conditions may yield more robust results than using a mixed population, as competition between microfouler organisms may reduce the biofilm formation capacity of the consortium.

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开发新的海洋防污表面：从单应变实验室测试中学习

考虑到海洋生物污损的严重经济和生态影响，针对海洋环境的防污（AF）技术的开发是一项广泛的研究领域。来自体外测定的初步数据经常用于筛选AF涂层的性能。直觉上微生物的组成在表面定殖中起主要作用。这项研究的基本原理是研究在初始筛选期间使用混合人群进行体外测试是否比使用单一菌株产生实质性不同的结果。针对两种常见的微污垢生物的单物种和双物种培养物测试了聚合物涂层49天。细菌（Pseudoaltermonas tunicata）和蓝细菌（Cyanobiumsp。LEGE 10375）被用于这项研究。线性回归分析表明，Cyanobium sp。与双物种生物膜相比，生物膜与更高数量的细胞，湿重，厚度和生物体积显着相关。尽管P. tunicata – Cyanobium sp。，单单P. tunicata的生物膜生长动力学就类似于双物种生物膜。与两种物种的生物膜相比，该混合物的生物膜密度更低，更薄。蓝藻sp。LEGE 10375生物膜提供了最坏的情况，即导致被测表面材料上生物膜数量增加的条件。因此，与使用混合种群相比，使用最严格的条件评估新涂层的AF性能可能会产生更可靠的结果，因为微污垢生物之间的竞争可能会降低财团的生物膜形成能力。