Project Description
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 and a recombinant E. coli with the genes phac1 and phac2 for a continuous production of the bioplastic. Also, the already registered PHA production cluster Part:BBa_K1112002 will be used as a control group in the transformation of E. coli. This stage will include the extraction of the PHAs from the intracellular medium. The E. coli will be modified with the help of synthetic biology to include a gene to release the PHA to the outer medium, thus avoiding the breaking of the cellular membrane. The main objective is to make the process efficient and with a high yield.
