White rot fungus Cerrena unicolor IUM 5400 produced ethanol from diverse sugars, including glucose, mannose, galactose, and cellobiose at 0.38, 0.28, 0.08, and 0.27 g of ethanol per g of sugar consumed, respectively. The fungus produced relatively high amounts of ethanol from xylose (0.28 g of ethanol per g of sugar consumed); however, the ethanol conversion rate of arabinose was relatively low (at 0.08 g of ethanol per g sugar consumed). When cultured in a basal medium containing 20 g/L rice straw or corn stalks, C. unicolor IUM 5400 produced 0.18 g and 0.18 g of ethanol per g of rice straw and corn stalks, respectively. The results suggest that C. unicolor IUM 5400 is a white rot fungus that can effectively hydrolyze cellulose or hemicellulose to sugars and simultaneously convert them to ethanol.

INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
    Microorganism
    Verification of the fungal strain
    Production of ethanol from diverse sugars
    Production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass
    Analytical methods
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
    Production of ethanol from hexose and disaccharidesugars
    Production of ethanol from pentose sugars
    Production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

• Kyung Hoan Im(Division of Life Sciences, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Korea)
• Jaehyuk Choi(Division of Life Sciences, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Korea)
• Seung A Baek(Honam National Institute of Biological Resources, Mokpo 58762, Korea)
• Tae Soo Lee(Division of Life Sciences, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Korea) Corresponding author