有病吃药的蚂蚁是好蚂蚁
Sick Ants Seek Out Medicinal Food
有病吃药的蚂蚁是好蚂蚁
Healthy ants wanted nothing to do with free-radical-rich foodstuff, but ants exposed to a pathogenic fungus sought it out, which upped their odds of survival.
自由基可以造成细胞损伤。一项研究显示，蚂蚁会通过食用含有自由基的食物来对抗真菌感染。
撰文/播音 克里斯多夫·因塔利亚塔（Christopher Intagliata）
翻译 张雪
审校 牛天宇 李轩
We humans take medicine when we're sick. As do our primate cousins. Chimps, for example,snack on a bitter African shrub to combat intestinal worms. But the habit extends even to invertebrates. Take fruit flies—which sip alcohol to ward off parasitic wasps. Or wood ants, which line their nests with antifungal, antibacterial tree sap. Now researchers in Finland report that ants there that have encountered a pathogenic fungus appear to fight the infection by eating foods high in free radicals. Those are molecules with a talent for causing cell damage, in this case, to the cells of the fungus. That's according to a study in the journal Evolution. [Nick Bos et al, Ants medicate to fight disease]
人类生病了会吃药，我们灵长类的近亲们亦是如此，黑猩猩就会食用苦涩的非洲灌木与肠道蠕虫作斗争。但是无脊椎动物似乎也有这样的习惯。比如果蝇会吸食酒精来躲避寄生蜂，红褐林蚁会在蚁穴周边布满抗菌的树汁。芬兰的研究者日前发现，当地遭受病原真菌感染的蚂蚁会通过食用富含自由基的食物来抵抗真菌侵染。而这所谓的自由基，能够造成真菌细胞损伤。该研究成果发表于《进化》（Evolution）期刊。
The researchers collected some 400 wild ants. They exposed some to the fungus, and left the rest alone. Then they offered up a sort of eggy custard—either plain, or laced with free radicals—in the form of hydrogen peroxide. Uninfected ants didn't want anything to do with the radical-rich food. Which makes sense.
研究者们采集了大约400只野生蚂蚁进行实验。他们将其中一部分暴露于真菌环境中，剩余的则作为对照，然后采用不同的奶油作为食物，一种是原味的，另一种则添加了过氧化氢以产生自由基。结果显示，未受侵染的蚂蚁对富含自由基的食物丝毫不感兴趣，这很能说明问题。
“Exactly, I mean we don't take painkillers on a daily basis, or we don't take antimicrobial agents on a daily basis. Because that would have really severe side effects on the organism." Dalial Freitak, an insect immunologist at the University of Helsinki.
“结果符合常理，就像我们人类也并不会每天服用止痛药或是抗菌剂，因为这些物质会对机体有严重的副作用。”赫尔辛基大学的昆虫免疫学家Dalial Freitak说道。
Sick ants, on the other hand, preferred the peroxide diet—even before developing a full-blown infection. And the medicine upped their odds of survival some 30 percent. "I would definitely go for it!"
另一方面，生病的蚂蚁则更倾向于食用添加过氧化氢的食物，即使它们尚未完全受到感染。而且这种“药物”能够增加其大约30%的生存几率。“我当然会去尝试一下啦！”
As for free radicals in the wild? Dalial says ants might get them from the honeydew substance that aphids produce. Or decomposing corpses—another ant favorite. No word on whether they sometimes seek out antioxidants.
问题是自然环境中有没有自由基呢？Dalial表示，蚂蚁或许会通过食用蚜虫分泌的蜜露或者分解尸体——另一种它们最爱的形式——来获取自由基。不过目前没有任何证据表明蚂蚁会寻觅抗氧化物食用。
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京ICP备11000850号-1
京公网安备11010502039775号 信息网络传播视听节目许可证0111611号
国家科技基础条件平台