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Malaria Parasite Attracts Mosquitoes with Perfume
【科学60秒】疟原虫是如何诱惑蚊子的
Ever lit a citronella candle to ward off mosquitoes, only to have 'em appear in droves? Well, believe it or not, you may have actually been attracting the bugs. Because while high concentrations of those pine-and-lemon-scented chemicals might repel mosquitoes, at low concentrations they lure the bloodsuckers in.
你是否曾经点燃一支香茅口味的蜡烛防蚊子，仅仅为了让它们在人群中暴露出来？好吧，信不信由你，也许你已经在吸引这些虫虫们了。因为尽管那些高浓度的松香柠檬味化合物也许会驱赶蚊虫，它们在低浓度时会吸引这些嗜血恶魔呢。
Audrey Odom, who studies mosquitoes at Washington University, calls it the "Chanel hypothesis." Too much perfume is awful, but a little is pretty nice. Plants take advantage of that to advertise their nectar—because no, mosquitoes don't live on blood alone.
Audrey Odom，在华盛顿大学专门研究蚊子，称之为“香奈儿假说”。太多香水很可怕，但是适量的话还是不错的体验。植物利用这点宣传它们自己产的花蜜——因为，不对，蚊子可不是只饮血的哦。
But here's where things get weird. Plasmodium—the malaria parasite—also manufactures those alluring odor molecules, called terpenes. It does so using a chloroplast-like organelle, like the one plants use to capture sunlight. The malaria parasite's version can't trap light, but it can still manufacture plant perfume. The study appears in the journal mBio. [Megan Kelly et al, Malaria Parasites Produce Volatile Mosquito Attractants]
因为，这里有个地方很奇怪。疟原虫——疟疾的寄生虫——也能制造这些诱人的气味分子呢，就是被称为萜类的物质。它通过叶绿体样的细胞器，就像是那种被植物用于捕捉阳光制造能量的细胞器（叶绿体），制造这种气味分子的。疟原寄生虫的这种情况是它不会去捕获阳光分解水等等，但它仍然可以制造植物芳香类物质。该研究已发表在《mBio》杂志上。
The parasites produce these scents in the lab, and mosquitoes are attracted to them. The only question left for Odom and her colleagues is whether these chemicals also appear in the breath of infected humans. If they do, she says, the goal is to build a quick breathalyzer test for malaria, instead of the blood test used today—which would attract doctors to a patient in need before the next mosquito comes to bite.
实验室中的研究发现，这些寄生虫能制造这些气味分子，而蚊子会被其气味所吸引。Odom和她的同事们唯一还没有解决一个问题就是，是否这些化学分子也会出现在感染了疟疾的人类的呼吸中。 如果是的话，据她说，我们将来可以开发出一种快速呼吸监测仪器用于探测疟疾，从而代替当前人们广泛采用的血液监测的方法——这样将可以使医生们关注到某个病人，阻断下一个蚊虫叮咬而引发的新一轮传染。
—Christopher Intagliata
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