Bacteria Can Use Viruses To Spread Toxin Gene

    For years, scientists and physicians have been up in arms about the rise in antibiotic resistance. Seems that many bacteria, devious buggers that they are, are able to share genetic information—including, say, the instructions for destroying penicillin. Well, if that’s not bad enough, scientists from the NYU School of Medicine have found that some bacteria can use viruses to help them pass along the recipe for their favorite toxin, results published in the journal Science.

    Like humans, bacteria are also prone to infection by viruses. And most of these viruses—called bacteriophage, or phage for short—make their bacterial victims sick. Or even dead. But in the laboratory, the scientists discovered that Staphylococcus aureus, the bug that causes toxic shock syndrome among other things, can actually co-opt phage, using them to shuttle the gene for toxic-shock toxin to another bacteria, in this case Listeria. That’s doubly nasty, because Listeria on its own causes food poisoning, so if it added toxic shock to its repertoire, well, that would be one seriously bad bug. Whether Staph aureus can pull off this stunt outside the lab’s not clear. But in this particular battle, ya gotta hope the viruses come out on top.

    細(xì)菌能利用病毒傳播毒素基因

    多年以來，科學(xué)家們和醫(yī)生們對于細(xì)菌對抗生素的抗藥性增強感到十分惱火。好像很多的細(xì)菌（它們狡猾，令人討厭）能共享基因信息---包括諸如破壞青霉素的指令。但是，這還不算是最糟糕的，來自紐約大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院的科學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)有些細(xì)菌能利用病毒來幫助它們傳播毒素。這項研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《科學(xué)》（Science）雜志上。
 
    和人一樣，細(xì)菌容易受到病毒的感染。這些病毒叫做噬菌體，它們中的大多數(shù)能使細(xì)菌治病，甚至致使其死亡。但是，科學(xué)家們在實驗室中發(fā)現(xiàn)金黃色葡萄球菌實際上（這種病毒導(dǎo)致中毒性休克綜合癥以及其它病癥）能指定噬菌體把中毒性休克毒素基因傳播給另一種細(xì)菌，在這個實驗中，傳播給了李斯特菌。這使得情況變得更加糟糕，因為李斯特菌本身能導(dǎo)致食物中毒，所以如果再加上中毒性休克病毒，這種病菌將成為一種嚴(yán)重的致病病菌。金黃色葡萄球菌在實驗室外是否能完成這項“特技”目前還不清楚。但在這場特殊的戰(zhàn)斗中，你肯定希望病毒最終獲勝。

    Vocabulary:

    Bacteria: 細(xì)菌； 
    Virus: 病毒 
    Toxin: 毒素 
    Gene: 基因 
    Physician: （內(nèi)科）醫(yī)生；醫(yī)師 
    Be up in arms: 非常憤怒 
    Antibiotic: 抗生素的 
    Penicillin: 青霉素；盤尼西林 
    Resistance: 抵抗 
    Devious: 狡猾的 
    Recipe: 秘方；食譜 
    Prone: 易于…的 
    Bacteriophage: 噬菌體 
    Staphylococcus aureus: 金黃色葡萄球菌 
    Syndrome: 綜合癥狀 
    Co-opt: 指定 
    Nasty: 討厭的 
    Pull sth off: 努力實現(xiàn)；贏得 
    Stunt: 特技 
    Repertoire: 所有組成部分；常備劇目 
    Ya: (口語)你