VOA慢速英語:Tomato's Genetic Secrets Are Peeled Away

番茄的基因秘密已被揭開

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
這里是美國之音慢速英語農(nóng)業(yè)報道。

Scientists have made a genetic map of the tomato. Tomatoes are second only to potatoes as the world's most valuable vegetable crop. Eight years of work went into making the map, or genome. Three hundred scientists around the world took part in the project to sequence the tomato's DNA code. Giovanni Giuliano, a researcher in Italy, is part of the Tomato Genome Consortium.
科學家已經(jīng)繪制出番茄的遺傳圖譜。作為全球最寶貴的蔬菜作物，番茄僅次于馬鈴薯。8年的工作進入了繪制基因圖譜的階段。來自世界各地的300名科學家參與 了這一番茄 DNA密碼測序的項目。意大利研究人員喬瓦尼·朱利亞諾（Giovanni Giuliano）是番茄基因聯(lián)盟的成員之一。

GIOVANNI GIULIANO: "We started as ten countries and we now are fourteen."
朱利亞諾：“我們一開始有10個國家的科學家參與進來，現(xiàn)在發(fā)展到了14個國家。”

Mr. Giuliano says having the tomato's genetic map will help growers who are always trying to produce a better tomato.
朱利亞諾先生說，有了番茄基因圖譜能夠幫助種植者生產(chǎn)出更好的番茄。

GIOVANNI GIULIANO: "And of course, this will be facilitated now by the fact that we now know not only what genes are there, but their order."
朱利亞諾：“當然，我們現(xiàn)在不僅知道番茄有哪些基因，還知道它們的基因順序，這會有所幫助。”

Researchers published the genome of a tomato used by Heinz, the American food company famous for its tomato ketchup. The thick sauce is used on hamburgers, hot dogs and other foods.
研究人員公布了美國亨氏食品公司使用的番茄的基因組，該公司因其番茄醬而著名。這種濃醬被用于漢堡包、熱狗和其它食品。

Heinz's research manager, Rich Ozminkowski, says the company knows what it wants in a tomato.
亨氏公司研究主管Rich Ozminkowski表示，該公司知道自己想要從番茄中得到什么。

RICH OZMINKOWSKI: "Traits like sugars and, for Heinz, viscosity, or the juice thickness, and the redness of the tomatoes are all very critical traits for us, for our products. Those are all controlled by a lot of different genes within a tomato naturally."
RICH OZMINKOWSKI：“對亨氏公司而言，番茄像糖分、粘度或濃度，以及紅色色度一類的特性對我們公司的產(chǎn)品來說非常關鍵。這些特性生來都是由番茄許多不同的基因所控制的。”

Mr. Ozminkowski says genome sequencing takes away much of the guesswork for breeders of tomatoes or other crops that have been mapped.
Ozminkowski先生表示，基因組測序消除了番茄或其它已經(jīng)繪制基因圖譜的作物育種上的許多臆測。

RICH OZMINKOWSKI: "By having the genome information, we can pick out those tomato plants that have more of those genes."
RICH OZMINKOWSKI：“有了基因組信息，我們能夠挑選出擁有更多這種基因的番茄植株。”

Until the late nineteen sixties, the tomatoes that Heinz used to make ketchup often cracked open on the vine after a heavy rain.
直到上世紀60年代，亨氏公司用來做番茄醬的番茄經(jīng)常都會在一場大雨后在藤上開裂。

RICH OZMINKOWSKI: "Heinz had set about trying to put together a variety of tomatoes that would resist that cracking."
RICH OZMINKOWSKI：“亨氏公司當時著手將各種抗開裂的番茄結合起來。”

Breeders used the traditional methods of mating generations of different varieties. The tomatoes they were trying to develop not only had to resist cracking. They also had to resist disease. And they had to be easy to harvest mechanically.
育種使用傳統(tǒng)方法使番茄不同品種的后代雜交。他們試圖開發(fā)的番茄不僅要抗開裂，還要抗疾病。同時還要易于用機械方式收獲。

Finally the company came up with the tomato it wanted, called the Heinz 1706. Mr. Ozminkowski says the job would have been much easier if there had been a genetic map to follow.
最終該公司找到了他們想要的番茄，這種番茄被稱為亨氏1706。Ozminkowski先生說，如果有一個可以遵循的基因圖譜，這項工作原本會容易得多。

RICH OZMINKOWSKI: "The tools available back when 1706 was developed, it was all very, very conventional breeding. There were no genetic tools. You could not look at sequences. You could not do comparisons. And that is what makes the genomic project and the technologies that have spun off of that so interesting."
RICH OZMINKOWSKI：“當年亨氏1706開發(fā)成功之時，可以使用的都是非常常規(guī)的育種手段。當時沒有基因工具。你無法查看基因序列，無法進行對比。而正是這些使得基因工程以及從中分離出來的科技如此有趣。”

But the work is not just about making better ketchup. Climate change may force many crops to adjust to new conditions. And Mr. Ozminkowski says researchers are already using the new genetic tools to help fight new plant diseases.
但這些工作不僅僅是為了做出更好的番茄醬。氣候變化可能迫使許多作物去適應新環(huán)境。Ozminkowski先生表示，研究人員已經(jīng)開始使用這些新的基因工具幫助對抗新的植物病害。

RICH OZMINKOWSKI: "And so this is going to give us even more, because there are new diseases that are becoming problems within California and around the world."
RICH OZMINKOWSKI：“因此這將對我們更有利。因為已經(jīng)有新的病害正在成為加州和世界各地的問題。

Researchers published the tomato genome in the journal Nature.
研究人員將番茄基因組發(fā)表在《自然》雜志上。