TED演讲:我们如何研究生活在肠道中的微生物(3)

 　　Now, of course, we were very interested to find out what are these so-called invasive species that are taking over in the zoo. 因此，我们对找出这些所谓的入侵物种很感兴趣，它们主宰着动物园里动物体内的微生物群。

　　So we went back to the DNA¹, 所以我们分析了它们的DNA，

　　and what the DNA told us is that every monkey in the zoo had become dominated by Bacteroides and Prevotella, 发现动物园里的每只猴子的肠道内都被类杆菌和普氏菌所主宰，

　　the same microbes that we all have in our guts² as modern humans. 这些猴子和现代人肠内拥有相同的微生物群。

　　We wanted to find a way to visualize³ this, 为找到让这一发现结果可视化的方法，

　　and we used some tools from multivariate ecology to put all of the microbiomes we were studying onto an axis⁴. 我们使用了一些多元生态学工具，把我们研究的微生物群放在（坐标图的）轴线上。

　　And what you're seeing here is a distance plot where every point is a different animal's microbiome. 这里你看到的是一个距离图，每个点代表着不同动物的微生物群。

　　So every point represents a whole zoo of microbes. 所以，每一点也代表了整个动物园的微生物。

　　And the microbiomes that have a lot of microbes in common are close to each other. 如果不同微生物群中彼此的微生物相似的话，它们在图中的距离就很近。

　　The ones that are very different are farther apart. 差异很大的微生物群，在图中则离彼此很远。

　　So this is showing you that the two groups of wild monkeys are over on the left. 这里展示的是：最左边的点代表两组野外的猴子。

　　The top left are these highly endangered monkeys called the red-shanked douc in Vietnam. 左上方的点是高度濒危的越南猴，叫做白臀叶猴。

　　And at the bottom left are monkeys from Costa Rica. 左下角的点则是来自哥斯达黎加的猴子。

　　So you can see that they have totally different microbiomes in the wild. 从图中看出，野外生活的猴子有着完全不同的微生物群。

　　And then the same two species of monkey in the zoo are converging⁵, 而在动物园里，这两种猴子（的微生物群）正在汇合，

　　so their microbiomes change and they become much more similar to each other, 它们的微生物群改变了，变得更加相似，

　　even though these are zoos on different continents, different geographical⁶ regions, and they're eating different diets. 尽管它们（猴子）来自不同大洲的动物园、不同的地理区域和不同的饮食。

1 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

2 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 visualize   

vt.使看得见，使具体化，想象，设想

参考例句：

• I remember meeting the man before but I can't visualize him.我记得以前见过那个人，但他的样子我想不起来了。
• She couldn't visualize flying through space.她无法想像在太空中飞行的景象。

4 axis   

n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线

参考例句：

• The earth's axis is the line between the North and South Poles.地轴是南北极之间的线。
• The axis of a circle is its diameter.圆的轴线是其直径。

5 converging   

adj.收敛[缩]的，会聚的，趋同的v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的现在分词 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集

参考例句：

• Plants had gradually evolved along diverging and converging pathways. 植物是沿着趋异和趋同两种途径逐渐演化的。 来自辞典例句
• This very slowly converging series was known to Leibniz in 1674. 这个收敛很慢的级数是莱布尼茨在1674年得到的。 来自辞典例句

6 geographical   

adj.地理的；地区(性)的

参考例句：

• The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
• These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。