VOA科学技术2022 蠕虫唾液酶可促塑料降解

（单词翻译）

Plastic-eating Enzyme¹ from Worm May Help Ease Pollution

Researchers have found that a chemical from a kind of worm can break down one of the most common forms of plastic.

研究人员发现，来自一种蠕虫的化学物质可以分解一种最常见的塑料。

The finding could open up new ways to deal with plastic pollution.

这一发现可能为解决塑料污染开辟新途径。

There have been several studies showing that

有几项研究表明，

microorganisms can release enzymes² that cause the plastic polyethylene to start to degrade³.

微生物可以释放导致聚乙烯塑料开始降解的酶。

But that process takes a long time.

但这个过程需要很长时间。

Around one-third of plastic waste is polyethylene.

大约三分之一的塑料垃圾是聚乙烯。

The recently-discovered enzymes were found in the saliva⁴ of the wax worm moth⁵.

最近发现的这种酶发现于蜡螟幼虫的唾液中。

They appear to act in only a few hours.

它们似乎在几个小时内就会起作用。

Federica Bertocchini is one of the researchers,

费德里卡·贝托基尼是研究人员之一，

who helped write a study on the finding, at the Margarita Salas Centre for Biological Studies (CIB) in Madrid, Spain.

她在西班牙马德里的玛格丽塔萨拉斯生物研究中心（简称CIB）帮助撰写了一篇关于这一发现的研究报告。

She is also a beekeeper.

她也是一个养蜂人。

She said she got the idea for the research while storing honeycombs a few years ago.

她说自己在几年前储存蜂巢时有了研究的想法。

Honeycombs are built by bees to store honey.

蜂巢是由蜜蜂建造，用于储存蜂蜜。

Bertocchini told AFP that one year she found her honeycombs full of wax worms.

贝托基尼告诉法新社，有一年她发现自己的蜂巢里满是蜡螟。

She cleaned the honeycombs and put the worms in a plastic bag.

她清理了蜂巢，把蜡螟放进一个塑料袋里。

When she returned later, she found the bag was full of holes.

当她稍后返回时，她发现那个塑料袋上全是洞。

She wondered if the worms were eating the plastic, or if there was a chemical reaction that caused the holes.

她想知道是蜡螟在吃塑料，还是发生化学反应造成了这些洞。

"We checked that, doing proper lab experiments, and we found that the polyethylene had been oxidized," she said.

她说：“我们做了适当的实验室实验进行核实，我们发现聚乙烯被氧化了。”

In her latest research, Bertocchini and her coworkers identified two enzymes in the worm's saliva.

在其最新研究中，贝托基尼及其同事在这种蠕虫的唾液中发现了两种酶。

The enzymes appeared to break down polyethylene in only a few hours at room temperature.

在室温下，这两种酶似乎在几个小时内就能分解聚乙烯。

The group published their research recently in Nature Communications.

该团队最近在《自然通讯》上发表了他们的研究。

In the study, they explained how they used another worm's saliva as a control in the experiment.

在研究中，他们解释了自己如何在实验中使用另一种蠕虫的唾液作为对照。

The control worm produced no result compared with the wax worm's saliva.

与蜡螟的唾液相比，对照组的蠕虫没有产生任何结果。

Bertocchini said her team is still trying to understand how the worms degrade the plastic.

贝托基尼表示，其团队仍在努力了解这种蠕虫如何降解塑料。

They said much more research is needed before the findings can be used to process plastic waste.

他们称还需进行更多研究才能将这些发现用于处理塑料垃圾。

However, Bertocchini said the enzymes could be put into a water mixture and then put "over piles of collected plastic" in a waste center.

然而，贝托基尼表示，这两种酶可以和水混合，然后放在废物处理中心“收集的成堆塑料上”。

She said that, in the future, the enzyme could be used in homes, where each family could degrade their own plastic waste.

她称，在未来，这种酶可以在家中使用，每户家庭都可以在家中降解自己的塑料垃圾。

Words in This Story

enzyme — n. a chemical substance in animals that helps start natural chemical reactions

saliva — n. a liquid produced in the mouth

degrade — v. to cause something to break down into simpler parts

oxidize — v.to chemically become combined with oxygen

control — n. a subject in an experiment that is not treated with anything and that is compared to a subject that is treated

pile –n. a group of things that are place one on top of the other