Abstract: Provided are modified bacteria for use in bioleaching rare earth elements (REEs). The modified bacteria contain at least one engineered genetic change that is correlated with improved bioleaching of the REEs, relative to REE bioleaching by unmodified bacteria of the same species as the modified bacteria. Also provided is a method for extracting REEs by contacting a composition containing REEs with biolixiviant produced by the modified bacteria. Kits that include containers that hold the modified bacteria are also provided.

Abstract: Systems and methods for isolating DNA molecules that can include the steps of: providing a transposon mutant collection, the transposon mutant collection being stored in a plurality of wells; dispatching aliquots from each well in the transposon mutant collection to a set of pools in a combinatorial pooling array that uses pool address coordinates, the aliquots being dispatched to the set of pools based on a location of the aliquots within the transposon mutant collection; constructing an amplicon library, the amplicon library including a sequencing dataset; parsing the sequencing dataset to a set of putative transposon insertion locations and pool address coordinates; calculating a likelihood for each location and pool address coordinates within the set of putative transposon insertion locations and pool address coordinates using a Bayesian inference algorithm informed by internal self-consistency; and generating a progenitor collection catalog based on location and pool address coordinates verified in the c

Abstract: Systems and methods for isolating DNA molecules that can include the steps of: providing a transposon mutant collection, the transposon mutant collection being stored in a plurality of wells; dispatching aliquots from each well in the transposon mutant collection to a set of pools in a combinatorial pooling array that uses pool address coordinates, the aliquots being dispatched to the set of pools based on a location of the aliquots within the transposon mutant collection; constructing an amplicon library, the amplicon library including a sequencing dataset; parsing the sequencing dataset to a set of putative transposon insertion locations and pool address coordinates; calculating a likelihood for each location and pool address coordinates within the set of putative transposon insertion locations and pool address coordinates using a Bayesian inference algorithm informed by internal self-consistency; and generating a progenitor collection catalog based on location and pool address coordinates verified in the c