This report covers research performed during the project period, from May 1, 1988 through October 31, 2002. This report covers the entire project period, focusing on research conducted during the final three years. Details of earlier work may be found in publications and in annual and budget-period progress reports. A complete list of publications (journal articles, reviews, and abstracts) resulting from the project i s included at the end of this report. Our research has dealt with seven major

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... areas of investigation: i) characterization of cellulolytic members of microbial consortia, with special attention recently given to Clostridium phytofermentans, a bacterium that decomposes cellulose and produces uncommonly large amounts of ethanol, ii) investigations of the chitinase system of Cellulomonas uda; including the purification and characterization of ChiA, the major component of this enzyme system, iii) molecular cloning, sequence and structural analysis of the gene that encodes ChiA in C. uda, iv) biofilm formation by C. uda on nutritive surfaces, v) investigations of the effects of humic substances on cellulose degradation by anaerobic cellulolytic microbes, vi) studies of nitrogen metabolism in cellulolytic anaerobes, and vii) understanding the molecular architecture of the multicomplex cellulase-xylanase system of Clostridium papyrosolvens. Also, progress toward completing the research of more recent projects will be briefly summarized. Major accomplishments include: