2022-06-08

科学家们说，他们已经破解了海蟾蜍的 DNA1 蓝图，该物种对部分动植物栖息地造成了破坏，而这一发现让人们重新燃起了控制这一事态的希望。

The cane2 toad3 originally came from South America and was introduced to Australia in 1935 with the hope that they would eat the beetles4 which were devouring5 sugar cane. But they ended up eating everything except the beetles. And they've been spreading through Australia ever since, poisoning native wildlife as they go.

海蟾蜍源于南美，并在1935年被引进澳大利亚，当时人们希望它们能吃掉吞食甘蔗的甲虫。然而它们却吃了除甲虫以外的所有动物。而且自那以来，海蟾蜍蔓延至澳大利亚各地，其所到之处的当地野生动植物都受到了毒害。

Snakes, lizards6 and even crocodiles can die if they ingest the amphibian's deadly toxin7. Now the possibility of a genetics-led solution is at hand. An international team of scientists has succeeded in unlocking more than 90% of the toad's genome – its genetic8 material. To get this information, the teams used advanced computers to sequence 360 billion DNA pairs, meaning they've worked out the exact order of the four bases in a strand9 of DNA.

如果摄入了这种两栖动物的致命毒素，蛇、蜥蜴，甚至鳄鱼都可能会被毒死。