One of Jalisco's most representative products is tequila, which is an alcoholic beverage distilled from Agave tequilana weber blue variety. Only 20% of the agave plant is used for tequila's manufacturing process; the rest, mainly the leaves, is disposed along with bagasse, which is the remaining fiber.

The main goal of the project is to synthesize polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) from the available carbon sources in agave residues through a recombinant E. coli strain. The bioplastic obtained from this process has multiple applications; for example, it can be used for the creation of disposable medical equipment and containers because of their resistance to heat and oils. A business model for the commercialization of our bioplastic is included.

The project will proceed in two stages. The first one will consist on the degradation of the cellulose to glucose. In order to access the cellulose within the organic tissue of the bagasse and leaves of the agave, a chemical and physical pretreatment will expose the cellulose to a culture of Aspergillus niger. The A. niger will then metabolize the cellulose into glucose.

The second stage will be a comparative study of the metabolic speed for the synthesis of PHAs between Pseudomonas putida KT2440 and a recombinant E. coli with the genes fab G, phaG, phaC1 and pha2, and a T7 promoter for an optimized production of the bioplastic. This stage will include the extraction of the PHAs from the intracellular medium in the cleanest way possible, through centrifugation. The main objective is to make the process efficient and with a high yield.