Ateneo student finding cure for coconut disease

MANILA, Philippines - A young biology student from the Ateneo de Manila University has launched a study in search for a cure to cadang-cadang, an infectious virus disease of the coconut palm that is responsible for $30 million in annual revenue losses for the domestic coconut industry.

Stephen Michael Co said his study entitled “Design and Construction of a Synthetic Coconut Cadang-Cadang Viroid cDNA,” hopes to address the 75-year-old disease that is endemic only to the Philippines.

Cadang-cadang is a disease which causes the yellow-bronzing and broom-like appearance of coconut leaves as well as stunted plant growth.

According to Co, the disease, which up to now has unknown cure, costs the Philippine economy some $30 million annually.

“Our buko is banned in several countries because they fear that the viroid will affect human health. But there are no reported cases about that,” he said.

“The ultimate aim (of the study) is to find a cure to this 75-year-old problem that is endemic only to the Philippines,” he said. “There is no cure because the mechanism of infection is not known.”

Co said he designed a synthetic form of the viroid that could be used for further experiments.

“Due to quarantine reasons, we cannot take out the live form of the viroid from Bicol,” he said.

Co said the Philippines contributes about 59 percent share in world coconut exports and about 25 million Filipinos depend on the coconut industry.

According to reports, cadang-cadang occurs in the central and eastern parts of the country and affects approximately 500,000 hectares of coconut farms.

“Our research might eventually cut down on coconut losses and help in livelihood,” he said.

“We are only in our first phase of research and we just assembled the synthetic viroid. We have not done further testing,” Co said.

Co’s study won first runner-up in this year’s Bank of the Philippine Islands-Department of Science and Technology’s “Best Project of the Year Awards.”

Now on its 20th year, the BPI-DOST “Best Project of the Year Awards” aims to recognize and provide incentives to graduating students in selected colleges and universities who excel in specialized fields of science, namely mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science and biology.

Mikhail Solon, a fourth year B.S. Phy­sics student from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, won the “Best Project Award” for his research entitled “Analysis of Selected Non-linear and Non-local Systems.”

Marvin Masalunga, also from UP-Diliman, was third runner-up for his project on the genetic diversity of microorganisms that cause commonly overlooked sexually transmitted diseases.