导读:2010年，美国科学家创建了世界上首个“人造生命”——原核生物支原体，引发世界关注。时隔八年，中国科学院研究团队与国内多家单位合作，在国际上首次人工创建了单染色体的真核细胞，取得了合成生物学领域上具有里程碑意义的重大突破。

By editing chromosomes-the DNA molecules that carry an organism’s genetic information-Chinese scientists have created a yeast strain with all the genetic information fused into a single chromosome, rather than the customary 16 for this species.

中国科学课通过编辑染色体—携带生物体遗传信息的DNA分子，创造出了一株将所有的遗传信息都融合在一条染色体上的酵母菌株，而非传统的16条染色体。

It marks the first time that organisms that naturally have multiple chromosomes have been artificially transformed into a single-chromosome form, scientists said. The modified organisms have shown no change in their life functions from their natural counterparts, they said.

科学家称，这标志了科学家首次将天然具有多条染色体的生物体人工转化成单染色体的形式。他们表示，这些经过改良的生物体与自然生物相比，生命功能并没有改变。

The research team from Shanghai said the breakthrough may provide possible insights into further research on telomeres-the "caps" on either end of a chromosome, which are closely related to aging and disease-and the effectiveness of new medications targeting such "caps".

来自上海的研究团队表示，这一突破可能为进一步研究端粒—即染色体两端与衰老和疾病密切相关的“帽”，并针对此类“帽”的新药的有效性提供了可能的见解。

The genomes of most organisms, including plants and animals, are divided into chromosomes, and the number of chromosomes varies across species. For example, humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes while mice have 20 and fruit flies have four.

大多数生物的基因组被分成染色体，包括植物和动物在内，其数目因物种而异。例如，人类拥有23对染色体，老鼠有20对，而果蝇则有4对。

Yeast naturally contains 16 chromosomes. However, using advanced techniques, scientists created the single-chromosome strain at the Shanghai-based Chinese Academy of Sciences Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences and the CAS Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology.

天然酵母含有16条染色体，然而，科学家们通过利用先进的技术，在上海的中国科学院分子植物科学卓越中心和中国科学院植物生理学与生态学研究所，创造出了单染色体菌株。

A paper about their research was published online by Nature on Thursday, and scientists believed it was a milestone breakthrough in the field of synthetic biology.

《自然》杂志于周四在网上发表了一篇关于该研究的论文表示，科学家们认为这是合成生物学领域的一个里程碑式的突破。

These engineered yeast strains constitute powerful resources for studying fundamental concepts in chromosome biology, including replication, recombination and segregation, all of which have been important topics in biology for a long time, said Paul Evans, China director of Nature Research Group.

“这些工程酵母菌株成为研究染色体生物学基本概念，包括复制、重组和分离等行为的重要资源，而这些都是生物学长期以来的重要课题。”自然研究协会中国主管Paul Evans表示。

Although the fusion considerably altered the chromosomal structure, the modified yeast cells proved "unexpectedly robust", with no major growth defects when cultivated under varied conditions, he said.

他表示，尽管融合显著改变了染色体结构，但经改良的酵母菌细胞被证明是“出乎意料地健壮”的，在不同的条件下培养时未发现明显生长缺陷。

（来源：爱语吧）