2023年经济学人 基因编辑产生的"音乐植物"(1)

 

    Gene¹-editing has created a generation of musical crops基因编辑创造了一代音乐作物

    It has been known for some time that plants can talk to one another.

    人们知道植物可以相互交谈已经有段时间了。

    Many communicate chemically, both through the air and via their roots—warning each other, for example, of the arrival of herbivorous insects in order to co-ordinate their responses to these pests.

    许多植物通过空气和树根进行化学交流——例如，相互警告食草昆虫的到来，以便协调它们对这些害虫的反应。

    Those responses are also often a form of communication, namely a further release of chemicals that recruit predators² and parasites³ of said herbivores.

    这些反应通常也是一种交流形式，即进一步释放化学物质，以“招募”这些食草昆虫的捕食者和寄生虫。

    These then solve their summoners' problems by having lunch.

    然后，它们可以帮忙解决召集生物的一顿午餐难题了。

    Plants' interactions with sound are less well understood, though it is known that flowers such as evening primroses⁴ can detect the buzzing of bees and respond by producing sweeter nectar.

    植物与声音的相互作用还不太清楚，尽管人们知道，像月见草这样的花可以探测到蜜蜂的嗡嗡声，并通过产生更甜的花蜜来回应。

    Moreover, a paper published in this week's Cell, by Lilach Hadany of Tel-Aviv University and her colleagues, describes how plants make noises when they are stressed by drought or physical damage.

    此外，特拉维夫大学的利拉赫·韩达尼和她的同事在本周的《细胞》杂志上发表了一篇论文，描述了植物在承受干旱或物理损伤的压力时是如何发出声音的。

    Dr Hadany and her team do not yet know whether other plants are listening, but suspect that they might be.

    韩达尼博士和她的团队还不知道其他植物是否在倾听，但怀疑它们可能会倾听。

    None of this is news, however, to Paolo Fril, CEO and chief scientist of the Gene Duplication Corporation (GeneDupe), a biotechnology firm in San Melito, California.

    然而，对于基因复制公司的首席执行官兼首席科学家保罗·弗里尔来说，这些都不是新闻，这家生物技术公司位于加州圣梅利托。

    Observing that gardeners and greenhouse owners, from Britain's new king, Charles III, downwards⁵, often talk to their charges, and sometimes even play them music, he and his team have been investigating plants' aural⁶ and oral activities for several years, and are now tweaking them using crispr-Cas9 gene-editing technology.

    他观察到，英国新国王查尔斯三世的园丁和温室所有者经常与他们的种植物交谈，有时甚至给它们播放音乐，他和他的团队几年来一直在研究植物的听觉和口头活动，现在正在使用crispr-Cas9基因编辑技术对它们进行调整。

    The plan is to create a range of products which Dr Fril hopes will please his firm's shareholders—which he needs to do after an awkward run-in the company had a few years ago with some animal-rights activists⁷ over its previous product, Print-a-pet.

    该计划是创造一系列的产品，弗里尔博士希望这些产品能取悦他公司的股东——在几年前该公司与一些动物权利保护者就其之前的产品“宠物打印”发生了尴尬的冲突之后，他需要这样做。

    Fortunately for Dr Fril, the plant-welfare lobby is not nearly as large and noisy as its animal counterpart.

    对弗里尔博士来说，幸运的是，植物权利游说团体远没有动物团体那么大，那么吵。

    The obvious place for this new endeavour to start was with the ears of cereal crops.

    这项新的尝试显然要从谷物的“耳朵”开始。

    Though not ears in the conventional sense of the word, GeneDupe's biotechnologists realised that they could be turned into such.

    虽然不是传统意义上的耳朵，但基因复制公司的生物技术专家意识到它们可以变成“耳朵”。

    Each of the spikes⁹ attached to the seeds in an ear of barley¹⁰, wheat or rye has a resonant¹¹ frequency that depends, like the note plucked from a harp¹² string, on its length.

    在大麦、小麦或黑麦的穗中，每一个附着在种子上的穗状物都有一个共振频率，就像从竖琴弦上拨动的音符一样，取决于它的长度。

    If those lengths can be varied¹³ precisely¹⁴ from seed to seed by appropriate gene editing, such an “ear” can be made into a real ear, with every spike⁸ responding to its own, unique, resonant frequency in a manner similar to the hair cells in the mammalian version of that organ.

    如果可以通过适当的基因编辑准确地改变种子与种子之间的长度，这样的“耳朵”就可以被变成真正的耳朵，每一个穗状物都可以对自己独特的共振频率做出反应，就像哺乳动物的毛发细胞一样。

1 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

2 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 parasites   

寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫

参考例句：

• These symptoms may be referable to virus infection rather than parasites. 这些症状也许是由病毒感染引起的，而与寄生虫无关。
• Kangaroos harbor a vast range of parasites. 袋鼠身上有各种各样的寄生虫。

4 primroses   

n.报春花( primrose的名词复数 )；淡黄色；追求享乐（招至恶果）

参考例句：

• Wild flowers such as orchids and primroses are becoming rare. 兰花和报春花这类野花越来越稀少了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The primroses were bollming; spring was in evidence. 迎春花开了，春天显然已经到了。 来自互联网

5 downwards   

adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地）

参考例句：

• He lay face downwards on his bed.他脸向下伏在床上。
• As the river flows downwards,it widens.这条河愈到下游愈宽。

6 aural   

adj.听觉的，听力的

参考例句：

• The opera was an aural as well as a visual delight.这部歌剧对于听觉和视觉都是一种享受。
• You can use these tapes as aural material.你可以把这些磁带当作听力材料。

7 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

9 spikes   

n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划

参考例句：

• a row of iron spikes on a wall 墙头的一排尖铁
• There is a row of spikes on top of the prison wall to prevent the prisoners escaping. 监狱墙头装有一排尖钉，以防犯人逃跑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 barley   

n.大麦，大麦粒

参考例句：

• They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
• He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。

11 resonant   

adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的

参考例句：

• She has a resonant voice.她的嗓子真亮。
• He responded with a resonant laugh.他报以洪亮的笑声。

12 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

13 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

14 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。