A Taiwanese academia-industry collaboration research project has successfully developed biochip systems which can detect some of the most common viruses that can affect banana and potato crops, and improves the efficiency and cost of screening the seedlings, the systems’ makers say.
The project was funded by the National Science Council and was led by Chang Chin-an (張清安), a professor at Chaoyang University of Technology’s Department of Applied Chemistry, in cooperation with DR Chip Biotech Inc.
“Bananas and potatoes are two common crops around the world. Like people and animals, plants can be infected by viruses, which can have a negative effect on their growth, harvest and quality,” Chang said.
Asexual reproduction, or plant tissue culture, is used for both crops to produce harvests with the same traits, he said.
However, if the seedlings are infected before reproduction, the viruses will be vertically transmitted to the entire crop, so screening for viruses is very important in the process of seedling reproduction, he added.
Chang said that the screening methods are developing from the species specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection technology, which is only able to screen one specific virus species at a time — to multipurpose PCR, which is able to screen for more than one virus species.
Chang said traditional PCR methods, which use gel electrophoresis to show detection results, can sometimes yeild unclear results — making it difficult to determine whether the seedling is infected — take about six hours to return a result, and can have genotoxic side effects.
The research team developed biochip detection systems that can detect multiple viruses at once and also have a detection sensitivity about eight times higher than traditional methods, he said.
So far, the biochip detection system for bananas has been able to detect the three most common virus species: cucumber mosaic virus, banana bunchy top virus — which can be found in bananas in Taiwan — and banana bract mosaic virus — which is common in the Philippines.
Chang said the researchers are still working to include the capability to detect the banana streak virus, which is a common virus in many parts of the world, to their biochip.
The researcher’s biochip for detecting viruses on potato seedlings can simultaneously detect all five common virus species in Taiwan: potato viruses Y, A, S, M and X from three virus genera, he said.
“While the detection methods currently being used take six hours for each species-specific detection process, the biochip detection systems only take five hours to detect several viruses at once, saving time and experiment costs,” he said.
DR Chip chief executive officer Sino Wang (王獻煌) said the company has completed the feasibility evaluation for comodifying the biochip detection systems for bananas and potatoes, conforms to the EU’s plant disease testing standards, and can hopefully acquire a worldwide market share of 10 percent and estimated revenue of between NT$200 million and NT$300 million (US$6.8 million and US$10 million) in two to three years.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS