The oxidative stress response caused by butenolide and 4,5-dichloro-2-n-octyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one (DCOIT) in marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum.

Butenolide [5-octylfuran-2(5H)-one] is a highly effective and environmentally friendly antifouling compound derived from marine natural products, but little was known about its toxic mechanisms toward marine microalgae. In this study, the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum was used as a model organism and DCOIT as the positive control to investigate the effects of butenolide on the growth, photosynthetic efficiency, and oxidative stress of microalgae. The results showed that although DCOIT and butenolide both significantly inhibited the growth of P. tricornutum, butenolide demonstrated much lower toxicity than the commercial antifouling agent DCOIT (96-h EC50 values of 2.49 mg L-1 and 0.099 mg L-1, respectively). At high concentrations (0.12 mg L-1), DCOIT caused significantly higher stress on algal cell photosynthetic efficiency than butenolide, with a much lower recovery potential for the algae cells. In contrast, the effect of butenolide was relatively reversible enabling better recovery of algal cells. Measurements of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) levels indicated both antifoulants induced excessive intracellular ROS accumulation, which lead to lipid peroxidation and photosynthetic impairment. However, butenolide caused a significant increase of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, SOD; glutathione peroxidase, GPx), which indicated the algae cells can still activate cellular defense mechanisms against butenolide-induced oxidative stress, whereas DCOIT likely inhibited the algae cells' antioxidant systems directly and caused more severe oxidative damage. Therefore, butenolide demonstrated better environmental friendliness, while DCOIT may pose higher ecological risks and induce irreversible impacts in marine microalgae. This study provides insights into the toxic effects and potential ecological risks of butenolide and DCOIT on P. tricornutum.