BIOTECHNOLOGY ISSUES FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES - New biotechnological applications of coconuts

Coconut is a major crop of many poor nations. The present paper shows with inexpensive fluorescence microscopy of the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), that coconut water has the capability of synthesizing proteins from recombinant DNA vectors. After only 4 hrs of 100 pM application of the EGFP plasmid (pEGFP), a strong fluorescent signal was detected with an off-the-shelf, low-tech CCD webcam. Since natural coconut water is sterile, this heat-stable delivery system may be a good option for the dissemination of food supplements and pharmaceuticals in poor nations. As expensive substances could be expressed in coconut water, through bioreactor technology or micropropagation, the concepts presented here may prove invaluable to the economic and social advancement of many developing countries.

Keywords
bioreactors, coconut, farming, micropropagation, nutriceuticals, recombinant, therapeuticals, transgene, transgenic