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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute.
People get malaria1 from Anopheles mosquitoes that themselves are infected with a protozoan parasite2 called Plasmodium. The mosquitoes do have immune systems. But the parasite has figured out how to get past the mosquito’s defenses. So researchers at Johns Hopkins University Malaria Research Institute are trying to help people—by pumping up the mosquitoes’ immunity3.
When a mosquito takes some blood from a human, she may also ingest Plasmodium. The parasite ends up in the insect’s gut4. The mosquito immune system jumps into action as the parasites5 try to push through the gut wall. Most parasites do get killed, but some manage to survive that gut migration6. Then they replicate7 and move to the salivary8 glands9, ready to infect the next person the mosquito bites.
Researchers are tinkering with specific mosquito genes11 to see how they affect the development of the parasite. Their goal is to develop a genetically12 modified mosquito with a strengthened immune system that kills all the parasites. They say next they’d need to get the gene10 into enough wild mosquitoes that they would breed and pass that gene on. No simple effort. But if it works, it could be a big victory in the war against malaria.
Thanks for the minute for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber.
1 malaria | |
n.疟疾 | |
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2 parasite | |
n.寄生虫;寄生菌;食客 | |
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3 immunity | |
n.优惠;免除;豁免,豁免权 | |
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4 gut | |
n.[pl.]胆量;内脏;adj.本能的;vt.取出内脏 | |
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5 parasites | |
寄生物( parasite的名词复数 ); 靠他人为生的人; 诸虫 | |
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6 migration | |
n.迁移,移居,(鸟类等的)迁徙 | |
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7 replicate | |
v.折叠,复制,模写;n.同样的样品;adj.转折的 | |
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8 salivary | |
adj. 唾液的 | |
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9 glands | |
n.腺( gland的名词复数 ) | |
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10 gene | |
n.遗传因子,基因 | |
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11 genes | |
n.基因( gene的名词复数 ) | |
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12 genetically | |
adv.遗传上 | |
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