A central goal of the Department of Energy, and of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center is to remove obstacles to economical microbial cellulosic ethanologenesis.  In particular, research at the GLBRC aims to generate an improved understanding into the cellular processes associated with the current bottlenecks in the conversion of cellulose to ethanol.  Several lines of evidence indicate that a critical current bottleneck is the ability of E. coli to convert the sugars derived from cellulose into ethanol.  The strain KO11 is a current benchmark ethanologenic strain.  In addition to metabolic engineering aimed at improving ethanol production, the strain has been subjected to several rounds of directed evolution experiments.  These experiments clearly resulted in a strain with an improved ability to produce ethanol, but the reason for this improvement is unknown.  The sequencing carried out by JGI will allow us to identify the mutations and genome rearrangements that underlie this improved ethanologenic capacity. Understanding these genetic modifications will allow for the identification of genes (some of which may be novel or unexpected) that will be key targets of future research into improving ethanologenesis.