The facile preparation of amphiphilic network coatings having a hydrophobic dimethacryloxy-functionalized perfluoropolyether (PFPE-DMA; M(w) = 1500 g mol(-1)) crosslinked with hydrophilic monomethacryloxy functionalized poly(ethylene glycol) macromonomers (PEG-MA; M(w) = 300, 475, 1100 g mol(-1)), intended as non-toxic high-performance marine coatings exhibiting antifouling characteristics is d...

Hybrid sol-gel-derived xerogel films prepared from 45/55 (mol ratio) n-propyltrimethoxysilane (C3-TMOS)/tetramethylorthosilane (TMOS), 2/98 (mol ratio) bis[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]-ethylenediamine (enTMOS)/tetraethylorthosilane (TEOS), 50/50 (mol ratio) n-octyltriethoxysilane (C8-TEOS)/TMOS, and 50/50 (mol ratio) 3,3,3-trifluoropropyltrimethoxysilane (TFP-TMOS)/TMOS were found to inhibit sett...

In an attempt to isolate bacteria with inhibitory effects against settlement by larvae of sessile invertebrates, 40 marine bacterial isolates were screened for effects against laboratory-reared barnacle larvae (Balanus amphitrite) and ascidian larvae (Ciona intestinalis). Five isolates displayed non-pH-dependent inhibitory effects against the larvae. The initial characterization of a toxic comp...

One new phenylalanine derivative 4'-OMe-asperphenamate (1), along with one known phenylalanine derivative (2) and two new cytochalasins, aspochalasin A1 (3) and cytochalasin Z24 (4), as well as eight known cytochalasin analogues (5-12) were isolated from the fermentation broth of Aspergillus elegans ZJ-2008010, a fungus obtained from a soft coral Sarcophyton sp. collected from the South China S...

Barnacles are a major biofouler of man-made underwater structures. Prior to settlement, cypris larvae explore surfaces by reversible attachment effected by a 'temporary adhesive'. During this exploratory behaviour, cyprids deposit proteinaceous 'footprints' of a putatively adhesive material. In this study, footprints deposited by Balanus amphitrite cyprids were probed by atomic force microscopy...

We have implemented a simple program to solve three of the problems related to 3D reconstruction (3D-Rec) of soft tissues: alignment of sections, distortions, and estimation of the spatial position of elements of interest inside the tissues. As a model, we chose the distribution of FMRFamide-like immunopositive neurons in the ventral ganglion of the barnacle Balanus amphitrite collected during ...

Amphibalanus amphitrite is a common fouling barnacle distributed globally in tropical and subtropical waters. In the present study, the genetic (mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I) and morphological differentiation in A. amphitrite from 25 localities around the world were investigated. The results revealed three clades within A. amphitrite with a genetic divergence of ~ 4% among clades,...