科学家首次发现无氧生存的动物

科学家首次发现无氧生存的动物

Researchers on Monday said they found the first animal out of millions of known species that can survive its entire life without oxygen.

周一，研究人员说，他们在数百万已知物种中，发现了第一种可以在没有氧气的情况下存活一生的动物。

The Henneguya salminicola (H. salminicola) normally lives in the muscle of its salmon host. The 10-celled creature has evolved to the point where it doesn’t breathe at all, according to a study published in the National Academy of Sciences.

H.salminicola通常生活在其鲑鱼宿主的肌肉中。据美国国家科学院(National Academy of Sciences)发表的一项研究显示，这种10细胞生物已经进化到完全不呼吸的地步。

“Aerobic respiration was thought to be ubiquitous in animals, but now we confirmed that this is not the case,” said Dorothée Huchon, a zoologist at Israel’s Tel Aviv University in a press release. “Our discovery shows that evolution can go in strange directions. Aerobic respiration is a major source of energy and yet we found an animal that gave up this critical pathway.”

以色列特拉维夫大学的动物学家Dorothee Huchon在一份新闻稿中说:“原以为有氧呼吸在动物中是普遍存在的，但现在我们证实事实并非如此。”“我们的发现表明，进化可以朝着奇怪的方向发展。有氧呼吸是能量的主要来源，但有的动物放弃了这一关键途径。”

The new discovery could impact a common understanding between scientists that multicellular life needs oxygen to live on Earth.

这一新发现可能会影响科学家之间的共识，即多细胞生命需要氧气才能在地球上生存。

Using deep sequencing approaches, the study found the H. salminicola has no mitochondrial DNA — normally containing the genes for respiration — which means the parasite “lost the ability to perform aerobic cellular respiration.”

利用深度测序的方法，研究发现H. salminicola没有线粒体DNA——通常包含呼吸基因——这意味着这种寄生虫“失去了进行有氧细胞呼吸的能力”。

It’s not clear how the H. salminicola survives without oxygen, but Huchon — who led the study — said it might be taking energy from the fish. He added that the parasite’s anaerobic traits were an accidental discovery.

目前尚不清楚鲑鱼是如何在没有氧气的情况下存活下来的，但领导这项研究的胡川说，它可能是在从鱼身上吸取能量。他补充说，这种寄生虫的无氧特性是偶然发现的。

The parasite is a myxozoan relative of jellyfish and corals that reportedly causes disease or cysts in the flesh of its salmon host, but is harmless to humans.

这种寄生虫是一种黏液动物，与水母和珊瑚有亲缘关系。据报道，它们会导致宿主鲑鱼的疾病或囊肿，但对人类无害。