In a significant science achievement involving a member of the “Manipuri’s in Taiwan” community, a research work of Dr. Puyam Tondonba Singh conducted at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, under the supervision of Dr. Ho-Ming Chen has been featured by a leading Taiwan media, “Focus Taiwan”, and published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). Fusarium wilt (Panama disease) is among the most destructive banana diseases worldwide. The most aggressive form, Tropical Race 4 (TR4), is particularly challenging because it is soil-borne, persists for long periods, and can devastate Cavendish banana plantations. Since most edible bananas are sterile triploids, developing resistant cultivars through conventional breeding is extremely difficult. As TR4 spreads into key production regions, scientists warn that the potential global impact could be around US$10 billion annually.
Taiwan has lived with TR4 since the 1960s and, through decades of field selection and tissue-culture screening at the Taiwan Banana Research Institute (TBRI), developed Cavendish variants that can survive in contaminated farms. Now, a major breakthrough from Taiwan offers new hope. In research carried out by Dr. Puyam Tondonba Singh and his team under the supervision of Dr. Homing chen (Academia Sinica), TR4 resistance in Cavendish somaclonal variants was linked to loss of specific DNA segments. Those missing regions remove genes that normally suppress banana immunity, allowing a stronger defense response against the fungus. This discovery offers a practical roadmap for screening, selecting, and engineering the next generation of TR4-resilient bananas worldwide.
Dr. Tondonba has recently been conferred the Ph.D. degree by the Institute of Biotechnology, National Taiwan University (NTU) (QS World University Ranking = 63) and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Academia Sinica. His doctoral training was supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Education Scholarship and the NTU Outstanding Scholarship. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Academia Sinica, Taiwan. He has received several awards and travel grants at international conferences, including support to present his work in the USA (Plant & Animal Genome Conference, San Diego) This internationally rec cognized work highlights the contribution of a Manipuri scientist to a globally urgent agricultural challenge, with direct relevance to food security and banana-growing economies. We believe your coverage would help share this inspiring milestone with audiences across India as well. This is indeed a proud moment for the team Manipuris in Taiwan and the wider academic and research community associated with Manipur.
