Source-Independent Enrichment of Light Lanthanides: Microbial Mobilization, Selective Uptake, and Intracellular Storage.

Beijerinckiaceae bacterium RH AL1 selectively enriches light lanthanides from diverse sources, regardless of mineral type or content, facilitating sustainable microbial resource use.

• Why it matters: Understanding how microbes discriminate and access lanthanides is crucial for sustainable extraction and utilization of these critical elements, especially given their role in green energy technologies.
• What they did: The study combined transcriptomics, analytics, and electron microscopy to investigate microbial mobilization, uptake, and storage of lanthanides from minerals, alloys, and compounds, focusing on strain AL1's behavior.
• The result: Findings show that strain AL1 preferentially accumulates light lanthanides through multilayered mechanisms involving chelation, uptake, and storage, enabling transformation of mineral-bound lanthanides into shared microbial resources.