Dr Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, the visionary geneticist who transformed India’s agricultural landscape passed away on September 28 in Chennai at the age of 98.
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Dr Swaminathan was born in
Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu, on August 7, 1925 to Smt Parvati Thangammalhe and Dr MK
Sambasivan. After completing his schooling in Kumbakonam he did his graduation
from the University College, Thiruvananthapuram, and later Agricultural
College, Coimbatore. He then joined IARI, New Delhi and obtained Associateship
in Genetics.
In 1949 he went to Wageningen University, Netherlands, to study genetics on a
UNESCO scholarship. In 1950 he joined the Plant Breeding Institute of the
University of Cambridge and earned PhD in 1952 for his thesis “Species
Differentiation, and the Nature of Polyploidy in certain species of the genus Solanum
– section Tuberarium”.
It is with cytogenetic studies in
potato—speciation: species interrelationships -- induced polyploids in Solanum species— that he started his
brilliant research career in 1949 at Wageningen and continued it at Cambridge
as a research scholar and later in Wisconsin, USA as a postdoctoral fellow. Noticing
the genomic affinity of the cultivated tetraploid potato with wild diploid
species, he undertook the transfer of genes from wild species to cultivated
potato to make it resistant to abiotic and biotic stresses. Later this hybrid
material was used to develop a frost-resistant potato variety called ‘Alaska
Frostless’.
In a span of about five years, he
published research papers of significance on “Induced Polyploids in
Non-tuberous Solanums and their crossability with potato” in reputed journals
such as Genetics, Nature, Journal of Heredity, Genetica, etc. His exhaustive review ‘The Cytology and Genetics of the Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and related Species’, published along with Dr
H.W. Howard in 1953 is still quoted by researchers engaged in the genetics of
potato.
Turning down the faculty position
offered by Wisconsin University, he returned in 1954, perhaps to make a
difference in agriculture back home in India. He then joined CRRI, Cuttack and
carried out indica-japanica rice hybridization programme, which resulted in varieties like ADT27
and RASI. This he later commented as the early harbinger of the Green
Revolution movement in India.
After six months he
joined IARI, Delhi as an Assistant Cytogeneticist in the division of Botany. It is at IARI that he did his most outstanding basic research spreading
across the elucidation of the structure of the chromatid, mitosis in yeast,
mechanisms of ionizing radiation and chemical mutagenesis, radio-sensitivity as
a function of ploidy level, actions of low and high LET ionizing radiations on
diploid and polyploid wheats, etc.
Establishing a
‘Gamma-Garden’ with 200 Curie cobalt 60 source at IARI, he carried out chronic
irradiation of crops to overcome ‘diplontic selection’ in vegetatively
propagated material exposed to ionizing radiation.
He also set up
laboratories to carry out basic research in cytogenetics using Drosophila
melanogaster and human peripheral blood leucocytes in vitro. He was among the first and foremost to use the method of
human chromosome preparation recommended by Moorhead (1960) to study the
indirect effects of radiation on human chromosomes.
His intellectual
curiosity opened up new avenues for basic and applied research in the areas of
cytogenetics of wheat, monosomic - nullisomic analysis—useful to identify the
chromosomes carrying desirable genes for biotic and abiotic stresses— in
hexaploid wheat, radiation and chemical mutagenesis, ‘Oxygen effect’ in low and
high LET radiobiology, etc. Dr Swaminathan’s School of Cytogenetics, IARI attracted
global attention for its excellence in basic research in cytogenetics and
radiation biology as revealed by papers published in journals such as Nature,
Current Science, Genetics, Radiation Research, Radiation
Botany, Environmental and Experimental Botany, Experientia, Die
Naturwissenschaften, Experimental Cell Research, etc.
It is commented that Dr Swaminathan’s
early basic research on the effects of ionizing radiation on cells and
organisms—correcting the fallacy under ‘target theory’— partly formed the base
for today’s ‘Redox Biology’. Rudy Rabbinge, Professor Emeritus, Wageningen
University, Netherlands commented on Swaminathan’s paper on neutron radiation
in agriculture in 1966 presented at an International Atomic Energy Agency
conference as “epoch-making”. Incidentally, as I am keying in these paras, the
late-night discussions I used to have with my roommate on radiation genetics, Prof AK Sharma's style of work in his Lab and particularly about my pet creature, Drosophila in Lake
Hall in 1966-68 flashed in my mind.
It was in recognition of his
original and theoretical and experimental basic research in cytogenetics,
radiation and chemical mutagens-induced clastogenesis and mutagenesis that Dr
Swaminathan was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1973.
Unlike many other scientists who
remained contended with carrying out basic research and publishing the results
in high-impact journals and moving to newer areas, Dr Swaminathan’s sense of
social responsibility drove him towards applied research to
achieve freedom for the country from dependence on food imports. This led him
to strive to reduce the height of wheat plants without reducing the length of
grain-bearing panicles through interspecific hybridization, induced radiation
and chemical mutagenesis, and use of plant growth regulators to improve their
response to fertilization and thereby improve productivity. This path, though
added to the basic knowledge of biological processes induced by physical and
chemical agents, could not fulfill his objective of evolving dwarf/semi-dwarf
wheat plants with normal spikes.
However, his trait of keeping himself abreast of major innovations in the world had finally led him to trace the Norin-10 dwarfing genes from Japan in wheat and Deejee-woo-jen dwarfing genes from China in rice. His contact with Prof. Orville Vogel of Washington University for dwarf wheat seeds ultimately led him to Norman E. Borlaug. It is this partnership of Swaminathan-Borlaug that ultimately introduced Mexican semi-dwarf wheat varieties to Indian farmers and thus paved the way for India’s Green Revolution in 1968.
His incisive vision on the role
of science for serving societal aims is described as more than impressive. He authored/edited
18 books and published 254 papers in various journals of which he was the
single or first author of 155 papers. They spread across crop improvement (95),
Cytogenetics and genetics (87) and phylogenetics (72). He was also a passionate
teacher known for elegantly simplifying the complex structural and functional
aspects such as formation of asynapsis’ and ‘desynapsis’, etc., of course,
without losing the science thereof. He taught cytogenetics, radiation genetics,
and mutation breeding during late 1950s through 60s.
He became Director of IARI in
1966 and steered it to newer heights. In 1972 he became the Director General of
ICAR and in 1979 joined the Government of India as principal secretary of
Agriculture and Irrigation. Finally, in 1980 he retired from government service
and joined the Planning Commission as a member for agriculture and rural
development.
During 1982-88 he steered the
International Rice Research Institute, Philippines with new scientific initiatives
while adhering to ecological and social dimensions of sustainable development.
Under his direction, efforts were initiated to create rice with better carbon fixation
capabilities so that better photosynthesis and water usage leading to higher
production can be accomplished.
He was an ardent builder of institutions. He established the Nuclear Research Laboratory at the IARI. He played an active role in the establishment of ICRISAT in India, International Board for Plant and Genetic Resources in Italy and International Council for Research in Agro-Forestry in Kenya. He also helped to build and develop institutions for research in China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran and Cambodia.
The role played by Dr Swaminathan in science and public policy for the last 70 years is commended by fellow scientists as “unapproachable”. It is obvious that he had received 84 honorary doctorates. Dr MS won many awards both in India and abroad, notable among them is: the first World Food Prize. With the prize money, he established the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in 1988 in Chennai to harness science and technology for ‘sustainable agriculture’ and ‘sustainable rural development’. Under his guidance, the Foundation is also researching the impact of climate change on crop productivity and the conservation of coastal biodiversity with a focus on the mangrove ecosystem. With his ‘Antyodaya’ approach Dr MS wanted India to bridge the digital, genetic, technological, nutritional, and gender divides to a great extent and solve the problem of food and income security. He and his Research Foundation did work to achieve this goal. No wonder, the Hungarian writer, Erdelyi Andreas called him “a modern Gandhi”.
As AK Singh, Director, IARI, observed this
“modern Gandhi”, deserves to be “worshiped by every citizen [Indian] while
taking daily meals”.
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Commendable efforts in tracing the glorious scientific career of Dr.M.S . What I heard about Dr. M.S in IARI when I was a student there in 1966-1968 was that he is meticulous to the minute in starting and finishing his lectures in class room howsoever complicated was the subject of lecture.
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