VOA慢速英语2019 DNA技术帮助农民识别作物疾病

DNA 1 Technology Helps Famers Identify Crop Diseases

It is often difficult for farmers to identify diseases quickly enough to protect their crops and those on neighboring farms. Now, some farmers are using a simple device directly in the field to find viruses before they spread.

对农民来说，尽快确定疾病以保护他们种植的农作物和临近农场里的农作物往往是很困难的事情。现在，一些农民直接在农田里使用一种简单的设备来发现病毒，阻止病毒传播。

In Tanzania, several viruses are a threat to cassava crops. Farmers struggle to identify the diseases in an urgent effort to avoid severe crop damage.

在坦桑尼亚，多种病毒威胁着木薯作物。农民很难尽快确定疾病以避免作物遭受严重损害。

The disease identification process is often difficult when farmers are acting 2 on their own. If they do not know what is attacking their crops, they cannot decide the best way to fight the disease.

英国科技公司牛津纳米孔公司生产的一个设备改变了这种情况。该设备从植物中提取脱氧核糖核酸，即我们更为熟知的DNA。DNA是几乎所有生物基因信息的载体。

A device from British technology company Oxford 3 Nanopore is changing that. The device extracts deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA, from plants. DNA is the carrier of genetic 4 information in nearly all living things.

英国科技公司牛津纳米孔公司生产的一个设备改变了这种情况。该设备从植物中提取脱氧核糖核酸，即我们更为熟知的DNA。DNA是几乎所有生物基因信息的载体。

The device helps farmers identify what is harming their crops so they can change to more resistant 5 crops.

这一设备帮助农民确定是什么伤害了他们的作物，这样他们就能改种抵抗力更强的作物。

Laura Boykin is with the University of Western Australia and also works with the Cassava Virus Action Project. She brought the device to a Tanzanian farm owned by Asha Mohamed.

劳拉·博伊金来自西澳大利亚大学，她同时也是“木薯病毒行动计划”的合作者。她将该设备带去了坦桑尼亚人亚沙·穆罕默德的农场。

“We are here collecting leaf punches from infected material to test. To do a DNA extraction and then start sequencing in the field.”

“为了进行测试，我们来这里收集受感染材料的叶片组织。我们要提取DNA，然后开始在农田里进行测序。”

The testing identified a number of viruses in the cassava fields near Mohamed’s farm. The process also discovered that plants considered resistant to disease had a very low viral level.

这一检测在穆罕默德农场附近的木薯地里发现了多种病毒。检测还发现，被认为具有抗病性的植物病毒性水平非常低。

“So what would have normally taken six months to a year, has just happened in a couple of hours. And that's possible because of amazing technology that exists, that is able to give farmers results real-time.”

“通常需要6个月至1年的检测，在几个小时内就可以完成。由于惊人技术的发明，这才可能实现，而且还能为农民提供实时结果。”

Once the viruses were identified, Asha Mohamed was given two kinds of seeds that are resistant to the diseases.

病毒确定后，亚沙·穆罕默德会得到两种可以抵抗这类疾病的种子。

In another case, DNA was collected from a pawpaw tree farm in Kenya. With that test, the technology was able to identify diseases affecting Naomi Mumo’s crops.

在另一个案例中，人们从肯尼亚的一个木瓜树农场提取了DNA。这种技术能确定影响内奥米·木默所种植作物的疾病。

“All my pawpaw were affected 6 by a disease, and I didn't know what kind of disease it was. But now, I have people who have identified the disease using new technology, and within a very short time. So I'm very happy.”

“我种植的所有木瓜都遭受了一种疾病的袭击，可是我不知道那是什么疾病。但是现在，他们用新技术在很短的时间内就帮我确定了这种疾病。我非常开心。”

Laura Boykin says she and other researchers returned to Mohamed’s cassava farm nine months later. She said the new plants were very healthy and had produced a large, successful crop.

劳拉·博伊金表示，她和其他研究人员在9个月后回到了穆罕默德的木薯农场。她说，新种植的植物非常健康，结出了又大又好的作物。

“After nine months of her growing the improved varieties, we are back here, and today we harvested her cassava plants and she went from zero yield to 35 tons per hectare, which is massive.”

“在她种植改良品种9个月之后，我们回到了这里，今天我们收获了她种植的木薯，她的产量从零增加到了每公顷35吨，这可真是大丰收。”

The speed at which farmers identify diseases can mean the difference between the success or failure on large areas of crop land. Now, the use of such simple and easily transportable DNA sequencing devices is making that possible.

农民确定疾病的速度关乎大面积农田的成功和失败。现在，使用这种简单又可轻松转移的DNA测序设备使之成为可能。

Words in This Story

extract – v. to take something out

leaf – n. part of a tree or other plant

sequence – v. arrange in a particular order

variety – n. many different kinds of things