Silver and gold nanoparticles were synthesized using an aqueous extract of the seaweed Turbinaria conoides and their antibiofilm activity against marine biofilm forming bacteria is reported here. The UV-Vis spectra showed the characteristics SPR absorption band for Ag NPs at 421 and for Au NPs at 538 nm. Further, the synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using FT-IR, XRD, FESEM, EDX, and HRTEM analysis. Spherical and triangular nanostructures of the Ag and Au nanoparticles were observed between the size ranges of 2–17 nm and 2–19 nm, respectively. The synthesized Ag NPs are efficient in controlling the bacterial biofilm formation; however, Au NPs did not show any remarkable antibiofilm activity. The maximum zone of inhibition was recorded against E. coli (17.6 ± 0.42 mm), followed by Salmonella sp., S. liquefaciens, and A. hydrophila. The macrotube dilution method inferred the MIC (20–40 µL mL−1) and MBC (40–60 µL mL−1) of Ag NPs. The CLSM images clearly showed the weak adherence and disintegrating biofilm formation of marine biofilm bacterial strains treated with Ag NPs. The Artemia cytotoxicity assay recorded the LC50 value of 88.914 ± 5.04 µL mL−1. Thus the present study proved the efficiency of Ag NPs as a potent antimicrofouling agent and became the future perspective for the possible usage in the biofouling related issues in the aquaculture installations and other marine systems.

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BackgroundAquaculture is one amongst the growing and major food producing sectors. Shrimp culture is one of the subsectors of aquaculture that attracts more attention because of the economic interest. However, the shrimp culture systems have been facing severe consequences and economical losses due to disease outbreaks. Risk of disease outbreak can be combated with the application of probiotics. For economically viable production of such probiotic products, the present study provides information on the optimization and partial purification of bacteriocin produced by a goat milk isolate Lactobacillus sp. MSU3IR against the shrimp bacterial pathogens.ResultsBacteriocin production was estimated as a measure of bactericidal activity (arbitrary Unit/ml) over the test strains. The optimum culture conditions and media components for maximum bacteriocin production by Lactobacillus sp. MSU3IR were: pH: 5.0, temperature: 30°C, carbon source: lactose; nitrogen source: ammonium acetate; NaCl: 3.0% and surfactant: Tween 80. MRS medium was found to extend better bacteriocin production than other tested media. Upon partial purification of bacteriocin, the SDS-PAGE analysis had manifested the presence of two peptide bands with the molecular weight of 39.26 and 6.38 kDa, respectively.ConclusionThe present results provide baseline trend for the statistical optimization, scale up process and efficient production of bacteriocin by the candidate bacterial strain Lactobacillus sp. MSU3IR which could be used to replace the usage of conventional chemotherapeutics in shrimp culture systems.