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Science and Technology
科技版块
Plant breeding
植物育种
Chick-please
鹰嘴豆
A neglected crop is about to get a high-tech makeover
一种被忽视的作物即将进行高科技改造
PLINY THE ELDER, a Roman administrator with a sideline in philosophy, appreciated the complexities of the chickpea.
老普林尼是一位罗马行政官员，副业研究哲学，他喜欢研究鹰嘴豆的复杂性。
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，他写道：“这种植物在大小、颜色、形状和味道方面存在着相当大的差异。”
One type, he reported, came in the shape of a ram's head.
他记录称，有一种是公羊头的形状。
Another, the Venus pea, was white, round and smooth.
另一种是维纳斯豌豆，白色，圆润。
A third had small, angular seeds.
还有一种种子很小，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，鹰嘴豆仍然是多种多样的，尽管现在公认的主要类型是大的、浅色的卡布利鹰嘴豆和小的、深色的德西鹰嘴豆。
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多个国家（在亚洲和非洲特别多）都有种植，为世界粮食供应贡献了1150万吨富含蛋白质的豆类，使其成为仅次于黄豆和豌豆的第三大豆科粮食作物。
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.
但它们的品种还没有得到充分的开发，其中很多是在研究不足的“地方品种”中被发现的，这些地方品种具有一定的遗传一致性，但没有像现代品种那样进行选择性地培育。
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,
有人意识到这一点。一组研究人员（来自国际半干旱热带作物研究所和其他40个组织，由澳大利亚默多克大学的拉杰夫·瓦尔什尼领导），
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.
他们已经从栽培植物鹰嘴豆及其7个野生近缘植物中提取出了一个全面的“泛基因组”，已经在《自然》杂志上发表了研究成果。
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.
他们的目的之一是鉴定被称为单倍型的基因块，这些基因块编码特定的、理想的特性，可以以各种方式组合在一起，从而产生整体上更好的鹰嘴豆和更适合特定环境的鹰嘴豆。
