Toxicologia Ambiental e Analítica

Anti-Biofouling Defence Mechanism of Basibionts (A Chemical Warfare) - A Critical Review

Abstract

Oluniyi Solomon Ogunola1 and Olawale Ahmed Onada

The fouling process is an ecologically complex web of interactions between basibionts e.g., corals, surface-colonizing microbes e.g., bacteria, and fouling biota e.g., Balanus species which are all mediated by chemical signalling. Sessile invertebrates, such as soft corals, sponges and sea cucumbers, evolved in an intense competitive milieu for space, light and nutrients, therefore they have developed chemical defence mechanism by producing secondary metabolites e.g., Terpenes to ward off bio-foulers and maintain clean body surfaces. The settlement of surface-colonizing organisms, commonly referred to as bio-fouling organisms, occurs naturally in a turbulent environment, yet the effects of waterborne versus surface-adsorbed chemical defences have not been compared in flow, therefore limiting our understanding of how they respond to toxic surfaces of the basibionts. Here, we reviewed the evidence that basibionts chemically inhibit the propagules of fouling organisms under natural conditions, and that chemosensory mechanisms may allow the larvae of bio-fouling animals to detect and avoid settling on chemically protected basibionts.