Today in 2011, US Patent 7943366 B2 was issued, an invention of Vineet Rajgarhia, Kari Koivuranta, Merja Penttilä, Marja Ilmen, Pirkko Suominen, Aristos Aristidou, Christopher Kenneth Miller, Stacey Olson, and Laura Ruohonen, assigned to Cargill, for their “Genetically Modified Yeast Species And Fermentation Processes Using Genetically Modified Yeast.” Here’s the Abstract:

Yeast cells are transformed with an exogenous xylose isomerase gene. Additional genetic modifications enhance the ability of the transformed cells to ferment xylose to ethanol or other desired fermentation products. Those modifications’, include deletion of non-specific or specific aldose reductase gene(s), deletion of xylitol dehydrogenase gene(s) and/or overexpression of xylulokinase.

Below are just three of the forty figures filed with the application. They all look about the same to my untrained eye.