新闻周刊:癌症研究前沿领域:太空中的植物（在线收听）

From the Health Section

文章来源：健康板块

Cancer Research's Final Frontier: Do Plants'Ability to Withstand Stress in Space Enable Them to Fight Illness?

癌症研究的最终前沿：植物在太空承受压力的能力能使其对抗疾病吗？

By Jessica Wapner

作者：杰西卡·瓦普纳

Humans Aren't the only organisms with flexible genes.

人类并不是唯一拥有灵活基因的生物。

Anything that reproduces contains a blueprint for making more of itself.

可繁殖的生物都有一个创造更多个体的蓝图。

And all DNA is susceptible to outside influence:

且所有的DNA都易受外界的影响：

The environment in which it lives can force dormant genes into action or new traits to appear.

所处的环境可使休眠基因发挥作用或者产生新的性状。

Stressful situations—changes in climate, temperature or predators, for example—are particularly good at eliciting genetic change.

压力环境改变气候、温度，例如食肉动物尤其容易诱发基因变化。

The world of flora has long been a source of cancer-fighting therapies.

植物界一直是抗癌疗法的来源。

The breast, ovarian and lung cancer drug paclitaxel, the most well-known example, originally came from the Pacific yew tree.

举个最耳熟能详的例子，治疗乳腺癌、卵巢癌和肺癌的药物紫杉醇，最初萃取自太平洋紫杉树。

Drugs to treat testicular and some lung cancers are based on chemicals in the common mayapple.

治疗睾丸癌和一些肺癌的药物是基于常见的盾叶鬼臼中的化学物质。

A group of drugs known as the vinca alkaloids, commonly included in chemotherapy regimens, are derived from Madagascar periwinkle.

常在化疗方案中看到的一种被称为长春花生物碱的药物，是从马达加斯加的长春花中提取的。

When it comes to using plants as medicine, the very traits that enable them to withstand environmental stress are often the ones that fight illness.

谈到用植物制药，那么就不得不提起植物能够承受环境压力的特质往往是与疾病作斗争的特质。

Joe Chappell, who researches natural products at the University of Kentucky, wondered whether exposing Madagascar periwinkle to a new threat would increase its anti-cancer properties by waking up inactive genes.

肯塔基大学研究天然产物的乔·查佩尔想知道，将马达加斯加的长春花暴露于一种新的威胁之下，是否会通过唤醒不活跃的基因来提高其抗癌特性。

To find out, he exposed the plant to a hazard it would never encounter on Earth: zero gravity.

为了找到答案，他将长春花置于在地球上永远不会遇到的危险之中：失重。

Last year, Chappell, with the help of Space Tango, a commercial company that provides support for research in microgravity, sent Madagascar periwinkle seedlings to the International Space Station.

去年，查佩尔得到了为微重力研究提供支持的商业公司Space Tango的帮助，将马达加斯加长春花幼苗送往国际空间站。

He also sent seedlings of valerian, a plant with anti-anxiety properties.

一同送上太空的还有缬草（一种具抗焦虑特性的植物）幼苗。

In the coming months, Chappell will find out whether growing in orbit created changes in the plants'DNA.

接下来的几个月，查佩尔将会发现在太空轨道上生长是否会改变植物的DNA。

If so, those changes can be tested for their cancer- and anxiety-fighting attributes.

如果会改变DNA，那么这些变化可以用来测试它们的抗癌和抗焦虑特性。