One of the barriers to more cost-effective conversion of biomass feedstocks to biofuels and chemicals is the high cost of the enzymes used to depolymerize lignocellulose.  As a member of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, this laboratory is pursuing the development of plants as vehicles for the production of lignocellulose-degrading enzymes. The two major objectives of this project are: 1) to take advantage of plant agricultural productivity to both decrease the unit cost and increase the production
capacity for these enzymes and 2) to determine if the expression of these enzymes in plants can improve biomass digestibility and effectively lower process costs for ethanol production from biomass.  We report initial results for a medium-throughput plant transformation/analysis platform we are developing. As part of the initial phase of this work, we have analyzed the expression of several genes in plants using high-throughput cloning methods and compared these results with previous observations using the same genes.  This platform will be used to assess plant expression and delivery methods of several classes of cell wall degrading enzymes provided by other members of the GLBRC.