科学美国人60秒 益生菌可以帮助拯救过热的珊瑚

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Probiotics Could Help Save Overheated Coral

益生菌可以帮助拯救过热的珊瑚

Sarah Vitak: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Sarah Vitak.

Charles Darwin’s famous trip on the HMS Beagle is primarily known for bringing us the concept of evolution. But  Darwin also investigated coral reefs and their formation. One thing about reefs in particular really confused him—that conundrum¹ became known as Darwin’s reef paradox². The paradox is this:

Sarah Vitak：这是科学美国人的 60 秒科学。 我是莎拉·维塔克。

查尔斯达尔文著名的小猎犬号旅行主要是因为给我们带来了进化的概念。 但达尔文也研究了珊瑚礁及其形成。 关于珊瑚礁的一件事让他特别困惑——这个难题被称为达尔文的珊瑚礁悖论。 悖论是这样的：

Voolstra: How can you find this lush, teeming³ of life in the otherwise, nutrient⁴ depleted⁵ ocean.

Voolstra：你怎么能在原本营养枯竭的海洋中找到这种郁郁葱葱、充满生机的地方。

Vitak: That’s Dr. Christian⁶ Voolstra, a professor at the University of Konstanz in Germany.

Vitak：那是德国康斯坦茨大学教授 Christian Voolstra 博士。

Voolstra: And the trick is symbiosis⁷. Corals are basically sessile organisms or animals, so they basically pick a place and they sit and then they cannot move. So the way they make a living is that they team up with micro algae⁸ inside the tissues. And this is essentially⁹ tiny plants that do photosynthesis¹⁰. And this photosynthesis generates sugars. And these sugars will be essentially delivered to the coral animals.

Voolstra：诀窍是共生。 珊瑚基本上是固着的生物或动物，所以它们基本上是找个地方坐下，然后就不能动了。 所以他们谋生的方式是他们与组织内的微藻合作。 这本质上是进行光合作用的微小植物。 这种光合作用会产生糖。 这些糖基本上会被输送给珊瑚动物。

Vitak: These little critters across the globe are in great peril¹¹ a lot of danger. According to a report from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network published in October 2021, we lost 14% of the world’s coral reefs in the last decade. This was mostly due to large scale bleaching¹² events. Coral bleaching is triggered by changes in the coral's environment—including increased temperature, sunlight, or pollutants¹³. But what exactly does it mean for coral to be bleached¹⁴?

Vitak：这些遍布全球的小动物正处于极大的危险之中。 根据全球珊瑚礁监测网络 2021 年 10 月发布的一份报告，在过去十年中，我们失去了 14% 的世界珊瑚礁。 这主要是由于大规模的漂白事件。 珊瑚白化是由珊瑚环境的变化引发的——包括温度升高、阳光或污染物。 但珊瑚被漂白究竟意味着什么？

Voolstra: The color of corals comes from the photosynthetic¹⁵ pigments¹⁶ of the algae. So the minute these algae are out, the coral looks white. So what happens in bleaching is that these symbiotic¹⁷ algae or tiny plant cells are getting expelled out of the coral tissue.

Voolstra：珊瑚的颜色来自藻类的光合色素。 所以当这些藻类出来的那一刻，珊瑚看起来是白色的。 所以漂白过程中发生的事情是这些共生藻类或微小的植物细胞被驱逐出珊瑚组织。

If the environmental conditions actually become better again, they can actually take up their algae again and they are fine. So this is a transitory state. But In actuality, if the environmental conditions persist, the coral literally¹⁸ starves to death.

如果环境条件真的再次变好，它们实际上可以再次吸收它们的藻类并且它们很好。 所以这是一个暂时的状态。 但实际上，如果环境条件持续存在，珊瑚就会饿死。

Vitak: Dr. Voolstra and his team were really interested in research that took a new approach to helping¹⁹ coral cope with increased ocean temperatures: treating them with probiotics. [Christian R. Voolstra et al., Extending the natural adaptive capacity of coral holobionts]

Vitak：Voolstra 博士和他的团队对采用新方法帮助珊瑚应对海洋温度升高的研究非常感兴趣：用益生菌治疗它们。

Voolstra: The general consumer knows that you can buy yogurt with probiotic cultures, right? There are some bacteria that are good for your gut²⁰.

Voolstra：一般消费者都知道你可以买到益生菌的酸奶，对吧？ 有些细菌对你的肠道有益。

Vitak: Just like humans, coral have a microbiome; a community of microorganisms that live on or inside them. Previous work had shown that bolstering²¹ the coral’s bacterial²² microbiome by giving them doses of probiotics helped them survive challenging conditions. The process is similar to how we work with microbiomes and probiotics in people.

Vitak：就像人类一样，珊瑚也有微生物群落； 生活在它们上面或内部的微生物群落。 以前的工作表明，通过给珊瑚提供一定剂量的益生菌来增强珊瑚的细菌微生物群，可以帮助它们在充满挑战的条件下生存。 该过程类似于我们在人体中使用微生物组和益生菌的方式。

Voolstra: You extract microbes from these very resilient individuals, and then you literally transplant them or offer them to less resilient individuals of the same coral species. So it's not that you're putting something there that wasn't there, but it's really like this human fecal transplants. You have a healthy donor²³, and you offer these bacteria to an affected²⁴ recipient²⁵.

Voolstra：你从这些非常有弹性的个体中提取微生物，然后将它们移植或将它们提供给相同珊瑚物种中弹性较差的个体。 所以不是说你放了一些不存在的东西，而是真的就像人类粪便移植一样。 您有一个健康的捐赠者，您将这些细菌提供给受影响的接受者。

Vitak: This had already been shown as a proof of concept in previous research. But Dr. Voolstra and his team wanted to drill down and understand it a bit better.

Vitak：这在之前的研究中已经被证明是一个概念证明。 但 Voolstra 博士和他的团队想要深入研究并更好地理解它。

To do the experiment, they worked in what they call “mesochosms”—sort of a sweet spot between a sterile²⁶ isolated²⁷ lab setting and a totally wild reef setting. Basically, they had aquariums²⁸ with multiple types of corals and some other critters. This allowed them to control conditions but also get a slightly more real-world result.

为了进行这项实验，他们在他们所谓的“中观”中工作——这是一个介于无菌隔离实验室环境和完全野生珊瑚礁环境之间的最佳位置。 基本上，他们的水族馆里有多种珊瑚和其他一些小动物。 这使他们能够控制条件，但也可以获得更真实的结果。

One very convenient thing about working with coral is that they are colonial organisms.

Voolstra: Which means that they consist of repetition of the same building blocks. From one colony, you can generate many, many fragments or pieces that all have the exact same genotype with this exact same environmental history. And then you can put them into different conditions.

与珊瑚一起工作的一件非常方便的事情是它们是殖民地生物。

Voolstra：这意味着它们由相同构建块的重复组成。 从一个菌落中，您可以生成许多片段或片段，它们都具有完全相同的基因型和完全相同的环境历史。 然后你可以将它们置于不同的条件下。

Vitak: Once they had their fragments they treated some of them with a mixture of bacteria that they had carefully isolated, selected, and grown from resilient coral—and, of course, they wanted to have a control for their experiment as well,  so they gave some a placebo²⁹ saline solution.

维塔克：一旦他们拿到了碎片，他们就会用一种细菌混合物对其中的一些进行处理，这些细菌是他们从有弹性的珊瑚中精心分离、选择和培育出来的——当然，他们也希望对他们的实验进行控制，所以他们 给了一些安慰剂盐水溶液。

Finally, they slowly cranked up the heat to simulate ocean warming.

Voolstra: And this was a very long experiment that essentially lasted over 75 days.

Vitak: What they found was fascinating. All the coral showed signs of bleaching as the temperature increased, but the coral treated with probiotics recovered faster. And they were 40% more likely to survive.

最后，他们慢慢提高热量以模拟海洋变暖。

Voolstra：这是一个非常长的实验，基本上持续了 75 天以上。

Vitak：他们发现的东西很吸引人。 随着温度的升高，所有的珊瑚都出现了白化的迹象，但用益生菌处理的珊瑚恢复得更快。 他们生存的可能性增加了 40%。

Voolstra: Okay, like as a coral biologist, or as a biologist, in general, I think you're usually very happy if you have a 5% effect or something observable that you can count with reasonable numbers. This is massive. I mean, if you almost double the survivorship, this is huge.

Vitak: The team also looked at how  adding this probiotic cocktail³⁰ changed the coral’s microbiome and—how it changed the coral itself. Adding the probiotic changed the composition of the coral’s microbiome.

Voolstra：好的，就像作为珊瑚生物学家，或者作为生物学家，一般来说，我认为如果你有 5% 的影响或可以用合理数字计算的可观察到的东西，你通常会很高兴。 这是巨大的。 我的意思是，如果你的存活率几乎翻倍，这是巨大的。

Vitak：团队还研究了添加这种益生菌混合物如何改变珊瑚的微生物组，以及它如何改变珊瑚本身。 添加益生菌改变了珊瑚微生物组的组成。

Voolstra: It also instigated³¹ a change in the expression of certain genes³² in the coral host. And those genes, were really kind of the go-to genes that you would bet on if this is for increased recovery.

Voolstra：它还引发了珊瑚宿主中某些基因表达的变化。 而那些基因，如果这是为了增加恢复，真的是你会打赌的首选基因。

Vitak: So basically—things like repair genes, immunity³³ genes, and stress response genes.

Voolstra:  So this is kind of the cliffhanger of this study, you actually change stuff in the host. And in the correlate host, and we don't know how long these changes will stay on. Of course, if those changes can be kept long term, you would not need to keep this probiotic treatment going on and on, right?

Vitak：所以基本上——比如修复基因、免疫基因和压力反应基因。

Voolstra：所以这是这项研究的悬念，你实际上改变了主机中的东西。 在相关主机中，我们不知道这些变化会持续多久。 当然，如果这些变化可以长期保持，你就不需要继续这种益生菌治疗了，对吧？

Vitak: Which would be amazing in terms of translating this to the real world.

Voolstra: I mean, there’s 300,000 square kilometers of coral reef. There's billions of coral. So if you want to bring a little magic potion underwater and inoculate³⁴ each coral, this becomes unmanageable. No organism makes a living in isolation³⁵. And I think we're just getting better at understanding this.

Vitak：在将其转化为现实世界方面，这将是惊人的。

Voolstra：我的意思是，有 300,000 平方公里的珊瑚礁。 有数十亿珊瑚。 所以如果你想在水下带上一点魔法药水给每一个珊瑚接种，这就变得难以管理了。 没有有机体以孤立的方式谋生。 我认为我们在理解这一点方面做得越来越好。

Vitak: Thanks for listening. For Scientific American’s 60 Second Science, I’m Sarah Vitak.

维塔克：感谢您的收听。 对于《科学美国人》的 60 秒科学，我是 Sarah Vitak。

1 conundrum   

n.谜语；难题

参考例句：

• Let me give you some history about a conundrum.让我给你们一些关于谜题的历史。
• Scientists had focused on two explanations to solve this conundrum.科学家已锁定两种解释来解开这个难题。

2 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

3 teeming   

adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注

参考例句：

• The rain was teeming down. 大雨倾盆而下。
• the teeming streets of the city 熙熙攘攘的城市街道

4 nutrient   

adj.营养的，滋养的；n.营养物，营养品

参考例句：

• Magnesium is the nutrient element in plant growth.镁是植物生长的营养要素。
• The roots transmit moisture and nutrient to the trunk and branches.根将水分和养料输送到干和枝。

5 depleted   

adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Food supplies were severely depleted. 食物供应已严重不足。
• Both teams were severely depleted by injuries. 两个队都因队员受伤而实力大减。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 symbiosis   

n.共生（关系），共栖

参考例句：

• They live in a symbiosis with governments that they are financing.他们与他们服务的政府互利共存。
• The symbiosis between social values and political structure has produced extraordinary achievement.社会价值观念和政治结构的共生现象带来了非凡的成就。

8 algae   

n.水藻，海藻

参考例句：

• Most algae live in water.多数藻类生长在水中。
• Algae grow and spread quickly in the lake.湖中水藻滋蔓。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 photosynthesis   

n.光合作用

参考例句：

• In apple trees photosynthesis occurs almost exclusively in the leaves.苹果树的光合作用几乎只发生在叶内。
• Chloroplasts are the structures in which photosynthesis happens.叶绿体就是光合作用发生的地方。

11 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

12 bleaching   

漂白法，漂白

参考例句：

• Moderately weathered rock showed more intense bleaching and fissuring in the feldspars. 中等风化岩石则是指长石有更为强烈的变白现象和裂纹现象。
• Bleaching effects are very strong and show on air photos. 退色效应非常强烈，并且反映在航空象片上。

13 pollutants   

污染物质（尤指工业废物）( pollutant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pollutants are constantly being released into the atmosphere. 污染物质正在不断地被排放到大气中去。
• The 1987 Amendments limit 301(g) discharges to a few well-studied nonconventional pollutants. 1987年的修正案把第301条（g）的普通排放限制施加在一些认真研究过的几种非常规污染物上。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

14 bleached   

漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的

参考例句：

• His hair was bleached by the sun . 他的头发被太阳晒得发白。
• The sun has bleached her yellow skirt. 阳光把她的黄裙子晒得褪色了。

15 photosynthetic   

adj.光合的，促进光合作用的

参考例句：

• In some plants photosynthetic products are stored in the form polyfructosans. 在有些植物中，光合作用产物是以多聚果糖的形式储藏。
• Chlorotic or necrotic lesions were evidence of decreased photosynthetic tissues. 缺绿的或坏死的侵蚀斑便是减少了光合组织的证据。

16 pigments   

n.（粉状）颜料( pigment的名词复数 )；天然色素

参考例句：

• The Romans used natural pigments on their fabrics and walls. 古罗马人在织物和墙壁上使用天然颜料。 来自辞典例句
• The original white lead pigments have oxidized and turned black. 最初的白色铅质颜料氧化后变成了黑色。 来自辞典例句

17 symbiotic   

adj.共栖的，共生的

参考例句：

• Racing has always had a symbiotic relationship with betting.赛马总是与赌博相挂钩。
• Engineering completely new symbiotic relationship is obviously not an imminent possibility.筹划完全新的共生关系显然是可能性不大。

18 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

19 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

20 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

21 bolstering   

v.支持( bolster的现在分词 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助

参考例句：

• Why should Donahue's people concern themselves with bolstering your image? 唐纳休的人为什么要费心维护你的形象？ 来自辞典例句
• He needed bolstering and support. 他需要别人助他一臂之力。 来自辞典例句

22 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

23 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

24 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

25 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

26 sterile   

adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• This top fits over the bottle and keeps the teat sterile.这个盖子严实地盖在奶瓶上，保持奶嘴无菌。
• The farmers turned the sterile land into high fields.农民们把不毛之地变成了高产田。

27 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

28 aquariums   

n.养鱼缸，水族馆( aquarium的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Biotope aquariums represent the natural environments of ornamental fish. 生态鱼缸表现出观赏鱼的自然生活环境。 来自互联网
• There are aquariums in many cities in the world. 世界上好多城市有水族馆。 来自互联网

29 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。

30 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

31 instigated   

v.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The government has instigated a programme of economic reform. 政府已实施了经济改革方案。
• He instigated the revolt. 他策动了这次叛乱。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

32 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

33 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

34 inoculate   

v.给...接种，给...注射疫苗

参考例句：

• A corps of doctors arrived to inoculate the recruits.一队医生来给新兵打防疫针。
• I was just meant to come out here and inoculate some wee babies.我是过来这边给小孩子们接种疫苗的。

35 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。