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2024考研英语同源外刊6月:舌尖上的美味竟然可以编辑!

Today’s Brussels sprouts taste better than you might remember from childhood. It’s not that your refined adult palate appreciates them better. Rather a new variety has displaced the original vegetable. You can thank plant breeders for the change. And modern breeders, armed with new gene-editing technology, are looking to replicate Brussels sprouts’ reinvention.

今天的抱子甘蓝比你印象中小时候的味道要好。这并不是说你成年后口味进化让你更喜欢它们了。实际上是一个新的品种取代了原来的那种蔬菜。你可以感谢植物育种者带来的这种改变。现代育种者具备了新的基因编辑技术，他们正准备复制抱子甘蓝这种食物再造的方式。

In the late 1990s scientists identified specific chemicals, called glucosinolates, that made Brussels sprouts taste bitter. Plant breeders started growing old seeds, previously discarded for producing paltry harvests, to identify tastier versions with lower levels of these compounds. Then they crossed these delicious but low-yield plants with modern, more prolific individuals until they found a descendant that made plenty of tasty sprouts, transforming the once maligned vegetable from a bitter pill into a popular side dish.

在20世纪90年代末，科学家们发现了一种叫做硫代葡萄糖苷的特殊化学物质，这种化学物质会让抱子甘蓝尝起来很苦。植物育种家们开始种植以前因收成不佳而被丢弃的老种子，从中识别出这些化学物质含量更低、更美味的种子。

But other veggies haven’t fared as well. That’s because most breeding decisions favor plant traits that matter to vegetable growers, not vegetable eaters. “I’d say disease resistance is probably the major focus these days of most breeding programs because that’s what imperils the ability of the farmer to grow the crop,” says Harry Klee, a professor emeritus of horticulture at the University of Florida, who specializes in tomatoes. “Quality traits are really completely ignored.”

但其他蔬菜就没有这么好了。这是因为在大多数育种过程中，目标植物特性的选择更多考虑的是蔬菜种植者的需求，而非食用者。佛罗里达大学园艺荣誉退休教授哈里·克利专门研究番茄，他说：“我认为，抗病能力可能是目前大多数育种项目关注的重点，因为抗病能力攸关农民种植作物的能力。”“品质特性真的完全被忽视了。”

In addition, breeders who focus on consumer crops must navigate the controversy surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Although all domesticated species now have different genetics than their ancestors, in agriculture, the term GMO refers to a plant that carries genes imported from a completely different species—and these changes are subject to stricter regulation. But newer techniques are allowing breeders to work within the context of a plant’s own genome, making tweaks that don’t trigger complicated rules.

此外，把重点放在消费者作物上的育种员必须应对与转基因生物有关的争议。虽然现在所有家用物种的基因与其祖代的都不同，但在农业领域，转基因生物特指的是携带了从完全不同的物种转入的基因的植物，而且这些基因变化需要接受更严格的监管。但更新的技术允许育种者在植物自身基因组环境下进行研究，在不触发复杂的规则的前提下做出调整。

Flavor is challenging to target because different people have different preferences—plus, even under the best conditions, flavor quality is more complex than something like yield. “We’ve spent a lot of time and money figuring out what flavor is, and most breeding programs don’t have the capacity to measure those things,” Klee says.

针对植物的味道进行处理是有挑战性的，因为不同的人有不同的偏好，而且，即使处在较佳条件下，味道品质也比产量等更复杂。“我们花了很多时间和财力来弄清楚味道的本质，而大多数育种项目都没有测量这些事情的能力，”克利说。

 

词汇：

1. palate

/ˈpælɪt/

n. 腭，上腭; 味觉，品尝力; (葡萄酒、啤酒的)口味，香味; 兴趣，趣味

2. paltry

/ˈpɔːltrɪ/

adj.不足取的;无价值的;琐碎的;卑鄙的

3. maligned

/məˈlaɪn/

v.(公开地)诽谤

adj.有害的;邪恶的;(疾病)恶性的;饱受诟病的

4. imperil

/ɪmˈpɛrɪl/

vt.危及;使陷于危险

5. emeritus

/ɪˈmɛrɪtəs/

adj.(尤指大学教师)退休后保留头衔的，名誉退休的

n.名誉退休者

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