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Science and Technology
科技版塊
Plant breeding
植物育種
Chick-please
鷹嘴豆
A neglected crop is about to get a high-tech makeover
一種被忽視的作物即將進(jìn)行高科技改造
PLINY THE ELDER, a Roman administrator with a sideline in philosophy, appreciated the complexities of the chickpea.
老普林尼是一位羅馬行政官員，副業(yè)研究哲學(xué)，他喜歡研究鷹嘴豆的復(fù)雜性。
In his master work, "Naturalis Historia", he wrote of it: "This plant presents considerable differences in reference to size, colour, form and taste."
在他的杰出作品《博物志》中，他寫道：“這種植物在大小、顏色、形狀和味道方面存在著相當(dāng)大的差異。”
One type, he reported, came in the shape of a ram's head.
他記錄稱，有一種是公羊頭的形狀。
Another, the Venus pea, was white, round and smooth.
另一種是維納斯豌豆，白色，圓潤(rùn)。
A third had small, angular seeds.
還有一種種子很小，有棱角。
These days, chickpeas are still as varied, though the main types now recognised are the large, light-coloured Kabuli and the smaller, darker Desi.
如今，鷹嘴豆仍然是多種多樣的，盡管現(xiàn)在公認(rèn)的主要類型是大的、淺色的卡布利鷹嘴豆和小的、深色的德西鷹嘴豆。
They are grown in more than 50 countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, and contribute 11.5m tonnes of protein-rich pulses to the world's food supply, making them the third most productive leguminous food crop, after beans and peas.
在50多個(gè)國(guó)家（在亞洲和非洲特別多）都有種植，為世界糧食供應(yīng)貢獻(xiàn)了1150萬(wàn)噸富含蛋白質(zhì)的豆類，使其成為僅次于黃豆和豌豆的第三大豆科糧食作物。
But their variety is under-exploited, and much of it is found in poorly studied "landraces"—local varieties that have some genetic coherence but are not as selectively bred as modern cultivars.
但它們的品種還沒(méi)有得到充分的開(kāi)發(fā)，其中很多是在研究不足的“地方品種”中被發(fā)現(xiàn)的，這些地方品種具有一定的遺傳一致性，但沒(méi)有像現(xiàn)代品種那樣進(jìn)行選擇性地培育。
Recognising this, a group of researchers from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and 40 other organisations, led by Rajeev Varshney of Murdoch University, in Australia,
有人意識(shí)到這一點(diǎn)。一組研究人員（來(lái)自國(guó)際半干旱熱帶作物研究所和其他40個(gè)組織，由澳大利亞默多克大學(xué)的拉杰夫·瓦爾什尼領(lǐng)導(dǎo)），
have produced a comprehensive "pan-genome" derived from the cultivated plant, Cicer arietinum, and seven of its wild relatives, which they have now published in Nature.
他們已經(jīng)從栽培植物鷹嘴豆及其7個(gè)野生近緣植物中提取出了一個(gè)全面的“泛基因組”，已經(jīng)在《自然》雜志上發(fā)表了研究成果。
One of their purposes was to identify blocks of genes, called haplotypes, that encode particular, desirable properties, and which could be bolted together in various combinations to yield both better chickpeas overall, and chickpeas better suited to particular sets of circumstances.
他們的目的之一是鑒定被稱為單倍型的基因塊，這些基因塊編碼特定的、理想的特性，可以以各種方式組合在一起，從而產(chǎn)生整體上更好的鷹嘴豆和更適合特定環(huán)境的鷹嘴豆。
