Abstract
Biocorrosion severely affects the maritime transportation industry by destroying port infrastructure and increasing fuel usage and the time and cost required to maintain transport vessels. Current solutions are partly satisfactory, and the antifouling coating still largely depends on biocide-containing products that are harmful to the environment. The importance of microbial signaling in biofouling and biocorrosion is not elucidated. We here take advantage of a highly stable lactonase that can interfere with N-acyl homoserine lactone-based quorum sensing and remain active in a coating base. The observed results show that an enzyme-containing coating can reduce biocorrosion over 21 months in the field. It also reveals subtle changes in the abundance of surface microbes, including sulfate-reducing bacteria. This work may contribute to pave the way for strategies pertaining to surface microbiome changes to reduce biocorrosion.