Stimulation of the Biofilms of a marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas agarivorans by Fucoidan extracted from macroalgae

Abstract

Bacterial biofilm growth in aquatic environments can be promoted by natural compounds such as polysaccharides and proteins. Fucoidan is a group of marine sulfated polysaccharides found in the cell wall matrix of brown algae. In the present study, extraction of fucoidan was studied by using two alternate methods comparatively and efficiencies of the fucoidan extracts from Cystoseira sp. and Padina pavonica were investigated for stimulation of biofilm development of Pseudoalteromonas agarivorans. The fucoidan rich extracts were tested for adhesion of biofilm bacterium in black polystyrene flat-bottom microplates. In the biofilm experiments, the extracts were found to stimulate biofilm development. The maximum mean for the biofilm stimulation efficiencies was 67.52% for SG1 - Cystoseira sp. and 67.50% for SG1 - P. pavonica. The results highlighted that Pseudoalteromonas agarivorans was able to adhere to the plates and the growth rates were increased with the addition of fucoidan extracts. This research indicated that fucoidan can be effective in biofilm development strategies in aquatic environments.