As part of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and in collaboration with Shawn Kaeppler (University of Wisconsin) and Natalia de Leon (University of Wisconsin), we are characterizing the genetic diversity in maize as part of the overall effort of the GLBRC to improve the efficiency of the development of corn stover as a biofuel feedstock. We have developed a maize expression atlas, characterized the transcriptome of over 500 maize inbred lines, identified genes and alleles associated with traits important to biomass and digestibility and have identified key transcriptional events important in senescence and recycling of nutrients. We are currently exploring new accessions in our diversity panel, developing an exome capture probe set, and identifying transcriptional regulatory networks in a set of diverse inbred maize lines.