Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria and Archaea

The sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) became a major research interest of Larry L. Barton (LB) following his position as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Harry D. Peck Jr at the University of Georgia (UGA). The research at UGA focused on energetics of SRB and included collaboration with Jean LeGall who maintained a laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry at UGA. Following an academic position at Johns Hopkins University, LB became a member of the Biology Department at the University of New Mexico (UNM) where his laboratory focused on metabolism of transition elements and biodetoxification of heavy metal(loid)s including metabolism of selenium, immobilization of uranium and formation of metallic nanoparticles. Recently his interest has focused on the impact of intestinal SRB on animal activities. Over the years, LB published 35 review articles, 90 peer review articles, 12 books including two edited monographs of SRB, served as founding editor of the international journal Anaerobe, was the series editor of SpringerBriefs in Biometals and participated in the organization of numerous international symposia on biometals. While on sabbatical in the laboratory of Jean LeGall at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Marseille, France, LB established a collaboration with Guy Fauque and this collegial interaction resulted in publishing several reviews on metabolic activities of SRB.

Guy D. Fauque (GF) began to work on sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in 1977 on the physiology and metabolism of SRB under the scientific direction of Jean LeGall in the Laboratoire de Chimie Bactérienne, CNRS, Marseille, France (PhD Thesis in 1979).GF was a scientific researcher in Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS) from 1981 and he retired in 2018. During his career, GF worked in four French scientific research organizations: CNRS, CEA (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique), IRD (Institut pour la Recherche et le Développement) and Aix-Marseille University. GF worked mainly on the structure-function relationship of enzymes and electron carriers involved in the dissimilatory sulfate and sulfite reduction of SRB mainly of the Desulfovibrio genus (hydrogenases, sulfite reductases, sulfur reductase, cytochromes, ferredoxins). During his career, GF produced 84 publications and 17 chapters and reviews which included 5 chapters with Larry L. Barton on biochemistry, physiology and biotechnology of SRB.