Rare earth soils are precious, but very common minerals across Arabian coast, especially in Chavara, Kollam District, Kerala. Rare earth soil, water, sediment, biofilm were collected from Chavara. 27 bacterial cultures were isolated from the collected five samples. Morphological and biochemical characterization were done for the isolates and also confirmed with molecular studies using 16S rRNA sequencing method. Bacillus cereus, Bacillus sp., Lysinibacillus sp., Exiguobacterium sp., Bacillus sp, Pseudomonas sp. were identified in Chavara samples. Bioaccumulations of rare earth elements were studied by employing FT-IR analysis and showed more accumulation of Ziercem and Ilmnate than other elements used. It had shown that, as in previous studies many microbial species identified in this study are also involved in bioaccumulation of rare earth elements. The accumulation of rare earth elements may have an additional application in field of agriculture.
16S rRNA sequencing, FTIR, rare earth elements
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