An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid comprising: (i) a sequence encoding a polypeptide having alpha amylase activity, wherein said sequence has at least 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or 100% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO:77 or enzymatically active fragments thereof, wherein the fragment has alpha amylase activity, or (ii) the sequence of (i), wherein the sequence identity is determined by analysis with a sequence comparison algorithm, or is determined by visual inspection, or (iii) the sequence of (ii), wherein the sequence comparison algorithm comprises a FASTA version 3.0t78 algorithm with default parameters; a nucleic acid comprising (i) a sequence encoding a polypeptide having alpha amylase activity, wherein the polypeptide's amino acid sequence has at least 97%, 98%, 99% or 100% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:78 or enzymatically active fragments thereof, wherein the fragment has alpha amylase activity, or (ii) the sequence of (i), wherein the sequence identity is determined by analysis with a sequence comparison algorithm, or is determined by visual inspection, or (iii) the sequence of (ii), wherein the sequence comparison algorithm comprises a FASTA version 3.Ot78 algorithm with default parameters; a nucleic acid comprising a sequence of any of to encoding a polypeptide lacking a signal sequence; a nucleic acid comprising: (i) a sequence of any of to encoding a polypeptide further comprising a heterologous nucleic acid sequence; (ii) the sequence of (i), wherein the heterologous nucleic acid sequence encodes a signal sequence; (iii) the sequence of (ii), wherein the heterologous signal sequence comprises an amylase signal sequence; or a nucleic acid sequence completely complementary to any nucleic acid sequence of to. (i) a sequence encoding a polypeptide having alpha amylase activity, wherein said sequence has at least 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or 100% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO:77 or enzymatically active fragments thereof, wherein the fragment has alpha amylase activity, or (ii) the sequence of (i), wherein the sequence identity is determined by analysis with a sequence comparison algorithm, or is determined by visual inspection, or (iii) the sequence of (ii), wherein the sequence comparison algorithm comprises a FASTA version 3.0t78 algorithm with default parameters; (i) a sequence encoding a polypeptide having alpha amylase activity, wherein said sequence has at least 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99% or 100% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO:77 or enzymatically active fragments thereof, wherein the fragment has alpha amylase activity, or (ii) the sequence of (i), wherein the sequence identity is determined by analysis with a sequence comparison algorithm, or is determined by visual inspection, or (iii) the sequence of (ii), wherein the sequence comparison algorithm comprises a FASTA version 3.0t78 algorithm with default parameters; a nucleic acid comprising (i) a sequence encoding a polypeptide having alpha amylase activity, wherein the polypeptide's amino acid sequence has at least 97%, 98%, 99% or 100% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:78 or enzymatically active fragments thereof, wherein the fragment has alpha amylase activity, or (ii) the sequence of (i), wherein the sequence identity is determined by analysis with a sequence comparison algorithm, or is determined by visual inspection, or (iii) the sequence of (ii), wherein the sequence comparison algorithm comprises a FASTA version 3.Ot78 algorithm with default parameters; (i) a sequence encoding a polypeptide having alpha amylase activity, wherein the polypeptide's amino acid sequence has at least 97%, 98%, 99% or 100% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:78 or enzymatically active fragments thereof, wherein the fragment has alpha amylase activity, or (ii) the sequence of (i), wherein the sequence identity is determined by analysis with a sequence comparison algorithm, or is determined by visual inspection, or (iii) the sequence of (ii), wherein the sequence comparison algorithm comprises a FASTA version 3.Ot78 algorithm with default parameters; a nucleic acid comprising a sequence of any of to encoding a polypeptide lacking a signal sequence; a nucleic acid comprising: (i) a sequence of any of to encoding a polypeptide further comprising a heterologous nucleic acid sequence; (ii) the sequence of (i), wherein the heterologous nucleic acid sequence encodes a signal sequence; (iii) the sequence of (ii), wherein the heterologous signal sequence comprises an amylase signal sequence; or (i) a sequence of any of to encoding a polypeptide further comprising a heterologous nucleic acid sequence; (ii) the sequence of (i), wherein the heterologous nucleic acid sequence encodes a signal sequence; (iii) the sequence of (ii), wherein the heterologous signal sequence comprises an amylase signal sequence; or a nucleic acid sequence completely complementary to any nucleic acid sequence of to.