Evaluation of Antimicrobial Activity of Antifouling Coating Components using Artificial Microbial Consortia

Two artificial microbial consortia (AMCs) were created using the marine heterotrophic bacterial culture collection at the National Scientific Center of Marine Biology, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. The use of AMCs as a test system for analyzing the antimicrobial activity of bacteria and their extracts, microscopic fungi, nanoparticles, and other components of antifouling coatings was compared with a natural seawater consortium (NSC). The consortia included representatives of the most common bacterial classes in the marine environment that were easily culturable and did not exhibit antagonism toward other consortium members. It was found that the activity of the test objects toward individual consortium member strains was lower or absent altogether compared with the activity toward the entire consortium.The activity of each test object toward the AMCs was stable, clear, and reproducible, in contrast to the results with the NSC.