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Title: Biomolecular and metagenomic analyses of biofouling communities

Author
item LEAVY, D.H. - U.S. NAVY
item HAMDAN, L.J. - U.S. NAVY
item LEBEDEV, N. - U.S. NAVY
item KUSTERBECK, A.W. - U.S. NAVY
item Li, Robert
item VORA, GARY - U.S. NAVY

Submitted to: Annual Naval Research Laboratory Review
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/12/2014
Publication Date: 6/1/2014
Citation: Leavy, D.H., hervey, W.J., Hamdan, L.J., Lebedev, N., Wang, Z., Deschamps, J.R., 1 Kusterbeck, A., Li, R.W., Vora, G.J. 2014. Biomolecular and metagenomic analyses of skip hull biofouling communities. In: Annual Naval Research Laboratory Review 2014, pp. 130-133.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Despite the decades of research that have focused on understanding the formation of biofouling communities, relatively little is known about the soft fouling consortia that are responsible for their formation and function. In this study, we used PhyloChip microbial profiling, metagenomic DNA sequencing, qualitative and quantitative nano-flow liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry metaproteomic analyses, elemental analyses, and fluorescence spectroscopy to determine the composition and function of naval ship hull air-water interface marine biofouling communities formed in different environments. High-throughput metagenomic DNA sequencing from both communities generated a total of 49,426,099 and 33,516,399 raw sequence reads that were assembled into contiguous sequences. Analyses of the relative read abundance demonstrated that both biofouling communities were dominated by Proteobacteria (specifically Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria). Significant compositional differences were observed between the two communities on the phylum (e.g., Cyanobacteria), class (e.g., Flavobacteria) and genus (e.g., Erythrobacter) levels. Although the Eukaryota were relatively minor constituents of the metagenomes, marked compositional differences were also observed between the two naval ships. By using such a large-scale and relatively unbiased approach, we established a baseline understanding of the microfouling and macrofouling species that constitute marine biofouling communities. Our results may provide guides for environment-specific antifouling coatings development.