Web Release Date: December 15,
Settlement of Ulva Zoospores on Patterned Fluorinated and PEGylated Monolayer Surfaces
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School of Biosciences, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, and Departments of Materials and Chemical Engineering, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106
Received July 27, 2007
In Final Form: October 5, 2007
Abstract:
Various designs for coatings that resist the attachment of marine organisms are based on the concept of "ambiguous"
surfaces that present both hydrophobic and hydrophilic functionalities as surface domains. In order to facilitate the
optimal design of such surfaces, information is needed on the scale of the domains that the settling stages of marine
organisms are able to distinguish. Previous experiments showed that Ulva zoospores settle (attach) in high numbers
onto fluorinated monolayers compared to PEGylated monolayers. The main aim of the present study was to determine,
when zoospores of the green alga Ulva are presented with a choice of fluorinated or PEGylated surfaces, what the
minimum dimensions of the two types of surface are that zoospores can detect and consequently settle on. Silicon
wafers were chemically modified to produce a pattern of squares containing alternating fluorinated and PEGylated
stripes of different widths on either a uniform fluorinated or PEGylated background. Each 1 cm × 1 cm square
contained stripes with widths of 500, 200, 100, 50, 20, 5, or 2 
m as well as an unpatterned square with a chemistry
opposite that of the background. Spores were selective in choosing where to settle, settling at higher densities on
fluorinated stripes compared to PEGylated stripes. However, the magnitude of response, and the consequences for
settlement on patterned areas overall, was dependent on both the width of the stripes and the chemistry of the background.
The data are discussed in relation to the ability of spores to "choose" favorable sites for settlement and the implications
for the development of novel antifouling coatings.
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