Buy any other name
色香俱全方為花
Mere colour, however, is for unsophisticated[2] lovers. A truly harmonious Valentine gift should smell beautiful as well. Sadly, commercial varieties of cut rose lack fragrance. This is because there is a trade-off between the energy that plants spend on making the complex, volatile chemicals that attract women and insects alike, and that available for making and maintaining pretty-coloured petals. So, by artificially selecting big, long-lasting flowers, breeders have all but erased another desirable characteristic.
然而，顏色之美只能取悅那些初涉塵世的戀人。作為情人節(jié)禮物，藍色的玫瑰再加上迷人的香氣，才更為協(xié)調(diào)?？上?，市售的切花玫瑰都缺少芳香。這是因為，植物合成揮發(fā)性復合物（這種復合物對女人和蟲子有著同樣的吸引力），與形成顏色迷人的花瓣并為之提供養(yǎng)料，兩者所耗能量存有一種平衡關(guān)系。因此，人工培育時如果注重花瓣大、花期長，就必須“犧牲”人人心儀的芳香。
Smell is tougher to implant than colour because it not only matters whether a plant can make odoriferous chemicals, it also matters what it does with them. This was made plain by the first experiment designed to fix the problem. In 2001 Joost Lücker, then a researcher at Plant Research International in Wageningen, in the Netherlands, added genes for a new scent into petunias. Chemical analysis showed that the new scent was, indeed, being made, but unfortunately the flowers did not smell any different. As happens in Florigene's blue carnations and roses, Dr Lücker's petunias dumped the foreign chemical they were being forced to create into cellular waste buckets known as vacuoles. Whereas pigments are able to alter a petal's colour even when they are inside a vacuole, because the cell contents surrounding the vacuole are transparent, smelly molecules must find a route to the sniffer's nose by getting out of the cell and evaporating.
在花中加入香味要比加入顏色難，因為前者涉及植物能否合成有味化學物質(zhì)以及如何處理這些化學物質(zhì)。第一個設(shè)計用于解決該難題的試驗充分證明了這一點。2001年，時任荷蘭瓦赫寧根（Wageningen）國際植物研究所研究員的朱斯特?呂克爾（Joost Lücker）在矮牽牛中插入了一種新型香味基因?；瘜W分析發(fā)現(xiàn)了合成的新型香氣物質(zhì)，但可惜花的氣味沒有任何變化。跟Florigene培育的康乃馨和玫瑰所遇到的情況一樣，呂克爾博士的矮牽牛細胞液泡中被動產(chǎn)生的外來化學物質(zhì)被當作廢物給排泄了。色素即便是位于液泡中，它也能改變花瓣的顏色，這是因為液泡外包繞的細胞內(nèi)容物是透明的，而氣味分子必須穿過細胞并揮發(fā)才能為聞?wù)咚劇?BR> Like Dr Lücker, Natalia Dudareva, of Purdue University, in Indiana, eschews[3] experiments with roses, since these plants have scents composed of 300 to 400 different molecules. She prefers to understand basic odour science using petunias and snap-dragons, which have about ten smelly chemicals apiece. She has made an encouraging discovery. By studying the many different pathways through which flowers make their fragrances, she has found consistent patterns in the way these pathways are regulated.
印第安納州普渡大學（Purdue University）的娜塔麗婭?都達瑞娃（Natalia Dudareva）跟呂克爾博士一樣，也沒有用玫瑰做試驗，因為這類植物的氣味分子組成多達300到400種。她選擇矮牽牛和金魚草作為基礎(chǔ)氣味科學的研究對象，這兩種植物每種只有10個左右的氣味分子。結(jié)果令人鼓舞——她通過研究花形成香氣的多個不同途徑發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些途徑都共用同一調(diào)控模式。
Such co-ordinated patterns suggest that a type of protein called a transcription factor is involved. Transcriptionfactors switch genes on and off in groups.If Dr Dudareva is right, cut roses have lost their fragrances not because the genes that encode their hundreds of scent molecules have each lost their function, but because the plants no longer make a few transcription factors needed to turn the whole system on.
試驗表明，這一共用調(diào)控模式與一種名為轉(zhuǎn)錄因子的蛋白有關(guān)。轉(zhuǎn)錄因子相當于基因的“開關(guān)”。都達瑞娃博士認為，切花玫瑰之所以失去芳香，并非因為香氣分子的所有編碼基因功能均失活，而是因為在這些切花玫瑰中，幾個啟動基因轉(zhuǎn)錄系統(tǒng)所必須的轉(zhuǎn)錄因子停止了合成。
This suggests that the task of replacing lost fragrance is more manageable than it seemed at first blush[4]. But even when the transcription factors in question have been identified, the problem of the energetic trade-off with pigmentproduction and longevity will remain. So Dr Dudareva is also measuring how quickly the enzymes in scent-production pathways work, in order to identify bottlenecks and thus places where her metabolic-engineering efforts would best be concentrated.
這表明，還原失去的芳香其實并不難。但是即使能鑒定出有關(guān)轉(zhuǎn)錄因子，與色素形成及壽命之間的能量平衡問題仍不可避免。因此，都達瑞娃博士對氣味形成過程中酶催化速度也進行了檢測，以期解開制約花香形成的“瓶頸”，進而弄清在哪個位置運用代謝工程技術(shù)最為有效。
Dr Dudareva's methods may also help to improve the job that flower-scents originally evolved to do—attracting insects that will carry pollen from flower to flower. By modifying the smell of crops such as vanilla, which have specific pollinator species, different insects might be attracted. That could expand the range in which such crops could be grown and thus make some poor farmers richer. A change, then, from making rich but romantic men poorer.
都達瑞娃博士的方法還可能有助于改善花香物質(zhì)的后期作用（即吸引傳播花粉的昆蟲）。香草等農(nóng)作物具有特定的傳粉昆蟲，但對其香味進行修飾后，可吸引不同的昆蟲。這樣一來，就可以擴大這類農(nóng)作物的種植面積，從而提高貧苦農(nóng)民的收入。因為這一改變，農(nóng)民致富了，浪漫的男士卻要“破財”了。
色香俱全方為花
Mere colour, however, is for unsophisticated[2] lovers. A truly harmonious Valentine gift should smell beautiful as well. Sadly, commercial varieties of cut rose lack fragrance. This is because there is a trade-off between the energy that plants spend on making the complex, volatile chemicals that attract women and insects alike, and that available for making and maintaining pretty-coloured petals. So, by artificially selecting big, long-lasting flowers, breeders have all but erased another desirable characteristic.
然而，顏色之美只能取悅那些初涉塵世的戀人。作為情人節(jié)禮物，藍色的玫瑰再加上迷人的香氣，才更為協(xié)調(diào)?？上?，市售的切花玫瑰都缺少芳香。這是因為，植物合成揮發(fā)性復合物（這種復合物對女人和蟲子有著同樣的吸引力），與形成顏色迷人的花瓣并為之提供養(yǎng)料，兩者所耗能量存有一種平衡關(guān)系。因此，人工培育時如果注重花瓣大、花期長，就必須“犧牲”人人心儀的芳香。
Smell is tougher to implant than colour because it not only matters whether a plant can make odoriferous chemicals, it also matters what it does with them. This was made plain by the first experiment designed to fix the problem. In 2001 Joost Lücker, then a researcher at Plant Research International in Wageningen, in the Netherlands, added genes for a new scent into petunias. Chemical analysis showed that the new scent was, indeed, being made, but unfortunately the flowers did not smell any different. As happens in Florigene's blue carnations and roses, Dr Lücker's petunias dumped the foreign chemical they were being forced to create into cellular waste buckets known as vacuoles. Whereas pigments are able to alter a petal's colour even when they are inside a vacuole, because the cell contents surrounding the vacuole are transparent, smelly molecules must find a route to the sniffer's nose by getting out of the cell and evaporating.
在花中加入香味要比加入顏色難，因為前者涉及植物能否合成有味化學物質(zhì)以及如何處理這些化學物質(zhì)。第一個設(shè)計用于解決該難題的試驗充分證明了這一點。2001年，時任荷蘭瓦赫寧根（Wageningen）國際植物研究所研究員的朱斯特?呂克爾（Joost Lücker）在矮牽牛中插入了一種新型香味基因?；瘜W分析發(fā)現(xiàn)了合成的新型香氣物質(zhì)，但可惜花的氣味沒有任何變化。跟Florigene培育的康乃馨和玫瑰所遇到的情況一樣，呂克爾博士的矮牽牛細胞液泡中被動產(chǎn)生的外來化學物質(zhì)被當作廢物給排泄了。色素即便是位于液泡中，它也能改變花瓣的顏色，這是因為液泡外包繞的細胞內(nèi)容物是透明的，而氣味分子必須穿過細胞并揮發(fā)才能為聞?wù)咚劇?BR> Like Dr Lücker, Natalia Dudareva, of Purdue University, in Indiana, eschews[3] experiments with roses, since these plants have scents composed of 300 to 400 different molecules. She prefers to understand basic odour science using petunias and snap-dragons, which have about ten smelly chemicals apiece. She has made an encouraging discovery. By studying the many different pathways through which flowers make their fragrances, she has found consistent patterns in the way these pathways are regulated.
印第安納州普渡大學（Purdue University）的娜塔麗婭?都達瑞娃（Natalia Dudareva）跟呂克爾博士一樣，也沒有用玫瑰做試驗，因為這類植物的氣味分子組成多達300到400種。她選擇矮牽牛和金魚草作為基礎(chǔ)氣味科學的研究對象，這兩種植物每種只有10個左右的氣味分子。結(jié)果令人鼓舞——她通過研究花形成香氣的多個不同途徑發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些途徑都共用同一調(diào)控模式。
Such co-ordinated patterns suggest that a type of protein called a transcription factor is involved. Transcriptionfactors switch genes on and off in groups.If Dr Dudareva is right, cut roses have lost their fragrances not because the genes that encode their hundreds of scent molecules have each lost their function, but because the plants no longer make a few transcription factors needed to turn the whole system on.
試驗表明，這一共用調(diào)控模式與一種名為轉(zhuǎn)錄因子的蛋白有關(guān)。轉(zhuǎn)錄因子相當于基因的“開關(guān)”。都達瑞娃博士認為，切花玫瑰之所以失去芳香，并非因為香氣分子的所有編碼基因功能均失活，而是因為在這些切花玫瑰中，幾個啟動基因轉(zhuǎn)錄系統(tǒng)所必須的轉(zhuǎn)錄因子停止了合成。
This suggests that the task of replacing lost fragrance is more manageable than it seemed at first blush[4]. But even when the transcription factors in question have been identified, the problem of the energetic trade-off with pigmentproduction and longevity will remain. So Dr Dudareva is also measuring how quickly the enzymes in scent-production pathways work, in order to identify bottlenecks and thus places where her metabolic-engineering efforts would best be concentrated.
這表明，還原失去的芳香其實并不難。但是即使能鑒定出有關(guān)轉(zhuǎn)錄因子，與色素形成及壽命之間的能量平衡問題仍不可避免。因此，都達瑞娃博士對氣味形成過程中酶催化速度也進行了檢測，以期解開制約花香形成的“瓶頸”，進而弄清在哪個位置運用代謝工程技術(shù)最為有效。
Dr Dudareva's methods may also help to improve the job that flower-scents originally evolved to do—attracting insects that will carry pollen from flower to flower. By modifying the smell of crops such as vanilla, which have specific pollinator species, different insects might be attracted. That could expand the range in which such crops could be grown and thus make some poor farmers richer. A change, then, from making rich but romantic men poorer.
都達瑞娃博士的方法還可能有助于改善花香物質(zhì)的后期作用（即吸引傳播花粉的昆蟲）。香草等農(nóng)作物具有特定的傳粉昆蟲，但對其香味進行修飾后，可吸引不同的昆蟲。這樣一來，就可以擴大這類農(nóng)作物的種植面積，從而提高貧苦農(nóng)民的收入。因為這一改變，農(nóng)民致富了，浪漫的男士卻要“破財”了。