Laurie A. Achenbach

TL;DR: Biological iron apportionment has been described as one of the most ancient forms of microbial metabolism on Earth, and as a conceivable extraterrestrial metabolism on other iron-mineral-rich planets such as Mars.

TL;DR: Two Dechloromonas strains are reported, RCB and JJ, that can completely mineralize various mono-aromatic compounds including benzene to CO2 in the absence of O2 with nitrate as the electron acceptor, the first example, to the authors' knowledge, of an organism of any type that can oxidize benzene anaerobically.

TL;DR: The recent completion of the whole-genome sequence of the perchlorate-reducing microorganism Dechloromonas aromatica offers further insight into the evolution and regulation of this unique metabolic pathway.

TL;DR: The results of this study significantly increase the limited number of microbial isolates that are known to be capable of dissimilatory (per)chlorate reduction and demonstrate the hitherto unrecognized phylogenetic diversity and ubiquity of the microorganisms that exhibit this type of metabolism.

TL;DR: An in-depth analysis of these organisms which form two distinct monophyletic groups within the Rhodocyclus assemblage is presented and two new genera are proposed, Dechloromonas and Dechlorosoma, which represent the predominant (per)chlorate-reducing bacteria in the environment.