Pinteus, SuseteLemos, Marco F.L.Freitas, RafaelaDuarte, Inês M.Alves, CelsoSilva, JoanaMarques, Sónia C.Pedrosa, Rui2020-07-152020-07-152020Pinteus, S., Lemos, M., Freitas, R., Duarte, I. M., Alves, C., Silva, J., Marques, S. C., & Pedrosa, R. (2020). Medusa polyps adherence inhibition: A novel experimental model for antifouling assays. The Science of the total environment, 715, 136796. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.1367960048-9697http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/5010Authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through Strategic Project UID/MAR/04292/2019 and UID/Multi/04046/2019 granted to MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre; through Red2Discovery Project (PTDC/MAR-BIO/6149/2014), co-financed by COMPETE (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016791); through CrossAtlantic project (PTDC/BIA-OUT/29250/2017), co-financed by COMPETE (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029250); through Jellyfisheries (POCI-01-0145-FEDER016772) and VALORMAR (Mobilizing R&TD Programs, Portugal 2020) co-funded by COMPETE (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-024517). The authors also wish to acknowledge the Integrated Programme of SR&TD “Smart Valorization of Endogenous Marine Biological Resources Under a Changing Climate” (reference Centro-01-0145-FEDER-000018), cofunded by Centro 2020 program, Portugal 2020, European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund, and SAICTPAC/ 0019/2015 - LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-016405 Oncologia de Precisão: Terapias e Tecnologias Inovadoras (POINT4PAC). This work was also supported by the European Union through EASME Blue Labs project AMALIA—Algae-to-MArket Lab IdeAs (EASME/EMFF/2016/1.2.1.4/03/ SI2.750419). Susete Pinteus, Celso Alves, Joana Silva and Sónia C. Marques were financial supported by FCT grants SFRH/BD/96203/ 2013, SFRH/BD/97764/2013, SFRH/BD/103255/2014 and SFRH/BPD/ 110400/2015, respectively.Although in the last decades significant advances have been made to improve antifouling formulations, the main current options continue to be highly toxic tomarine environment, leading to an urgent need for new safer alternatives. For anti-adherence studies, barnacles and mussels are commonly the first choice for experimental purposes. However, the use of these organisms involves a series of laborious and time-consuming stages. In the present work, a new approach for testing antifouling formulations was developed under known formulations and novel proposed options. Due to their high resilience, ability of surviving in hostile environments and high abundance in different ecosystems, medusa polyps present themselves as prospect candidates for antifouling protocols. Thus, a complete protocol to test antifouling formulations using polyps is presented, while the antifouling properties of two invasive seaweeds, Asparagopsis armata and Sargassum muticum, were evaluated within this new test model framework. The use of medusa polyps as model to test antifouling substances revealed to be a reliable alternative to the conventional organisms, presenting several advantages since the protocol is less laborious, less time-consuming and reproductive. The results also show that the seaweeds A. armata and S. muticum produce compounds with anti-adherence properties being therefore potential candidates for the development of new greener antifouling formulations.engAsparagopsis armataAurelia auritaBiofoulingMarine natural productsPhyllorhiza punctataSargassum muticumNew anti-adherence protocoljournal articledoi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136796