Marine biofouling--the colonization of small marine microorganisms on surfaces that are directly exposed to seawater, such as ships' hulls--is an expensive problem that is currently without an environmentally compatible solution. Biofouling leads to increased hydrodynamic drag, which, in turn, causes increased fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Tributyltin-free antifouling coatings and paints based on metal complexes or biocides have been shown to efficiently prevent marine biofouling. However, these materials can damage the environment through metal leaching (for example, of copper and zinc) and bacteria resistance. Here, we show that vanadium pentoxide nanowires act like naturally occurring vanadium haloperoxidases to prevent marine biofouling. In the presence of bromide ions and hydrogen peroxide, the nanowires catalyse the oxidation of bromide ions to hypobromous acid (HOBr). Singlet molecular oxygen ((1)O(2)) is formed and this exerts strong antibacterial activity, which prevents marine biofouling without being toxic to marine biota. Vanadium pentoxide nanowires have the potential to be an alternative approach to conventional anti-biofouling agents.

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Implications for the catalytic mechanism of the vanadium-containing chloroperoxidase from the fungus Curvularia inaequalis have been obtained from the crystal structures of the native and peroxide forms of the enzyme. The X-ray structures have been solved by difference Fourier techniques using the atomic model of the azide chloroperoxidase complex. The 2.03 A crystal structure (R = 19.7%) of the native enzyme reveals the geometry of the intact catalytic vanadium center. The vanadium is coordinated by four non-protein oxygen atoms and one nitrogen (NE2) atom from histidine 496 in a trigonal bipyramidal fashion. Three oxygens are in the equatorial plane and the fourth oxygen and the nitrogen are at the apexes of the bipyramid. In the 2.24 A crystal structure (R = 17.7%) of the peroxide derivate the peroxide is bound to the vanadium in an eta2-fashion after the release of the apical oxygen ligand. The vanadium is coordinated also by 4 non-protein oxygen atoms and one nitrogen (NE2) from histidine 496. The coordination geometry around the vanadium is that of a distorted tetragonal pyramid with the two peroxide oxygens, one oxygen and the nitrogen in the basal plane and one oxygen in the apical position. A mechanism for the catalytic cycle has been proposed based on these X-ray structures and kinetic data.

The chloroperoxidase (EC 1.11.1.-) from the fungus Curvularia inaequalis belongs to a class of vanadium enzymes that oxidize halides in the presence of hydrogen peroxide to the corresponding hypohalous acids. The 2.1 A crystal structure (R = 20%) of an azide chloroperoxidase complex reveals the geometry of the catalytic vanadium center. Azide coordinates directly to the metal center, resulting in a structure with azide, three nonprotein oxygens, and a histidine as ligands. In the native state vanadium will be bound as hydrogen vanadate(V) in a trigonal bipyramidal coordination with the metal coordinated to three oxygens in the equatorial plane, to the OH group at one apical position, and to the e2 nitrogen of a histidine at the other apical position. The protein fold is mainly a-helical with two fourhelix bundles as main structural motifs and an overall structure different from other structures. The helices pack together to a compact molecule, which explains the high stability of the protein. An amino acid sequence comparison with vanadiumcontaining bromoperoxidase from the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum shows high similarities in the regions of the metal binding site, with all hydrogen vanadate(V) interacting residues conserved except for lysine-353, which is an asparagine.Haloperoxidases form a class of enzymes that are able to oxidize halides (Cl-, Br-, I-) in the presence of hydrogen peroxide to the corresponding hypohalous acids according to H202 + X + H+ ->H20 + HOX.