it is for us to know what viruses may be lurking out there.

它是為了讓我們知道外面可能潛伏著什麼病毒。

But while we keep one wary eye out for those potentially harmful ones, we're also uncovering

但是，在我們對那些潛在的有害的東西保持警惕的同時，我們也在發現

just how much viruses have actually shaped humans—and the rest of life on Earth—in

病毒究竟在多大程度上塑造了人類和地球上的其他生命？

some really surprising ways.

一些真正令人驚訝的方式。

'Virus hunters', as they're known, are

他們被稱為 "病毒獵人"，是指

scientists who search the hidden corners of the world for viruses that are poised to become

科學家們在世界的隱蔽角落裡尋找那些準備成為 "新世紀 "的病毒。

human pathogens. In many cases, they're searching for Disease

人類病原體。在許多情況下，他們正在尋找疾病

X. That's not the name of an actual illness—it's what we call the hypothetical infection that

X.這不是一種實際疾病的名稱--這是我們對假設的感染的稱呼，即

could cause the next big global disease. The idea is to find it before it finds us.

可能導致下一個大的全球疾病。我們的想法是在它找到我們之前找到它。

But other researchers are delving into what else viruses are doing on our planet besides

但其他研究人員正在深入研究，除了病毒在我們的星球上還在做什麼

making people sick. It's estimated that there are about this many individual viruses

使人們生病。據估計，大約有這麼多單獨的病毒

on our planet.

在我們的星球上。

And we've only made the most miniscule dent

而我們只做了最微不足道的改變

in that number: we've found and classified about 9,000 of the viruses on Earth.

在這個數字中：我們已經發現並分類了地球上大約9000種病毒。

And of those, only about 200 are known to cause disease in humans.

而其中，只有約200種已知會導致人類的疾病。

But over the past decade, scientists have been identifying new viruses by the thousands.

但是在過去十年中，科學家們一直在識別數以千計的新病毒。

And the main tool they're using to do that...is metagenomics.

而他們用來做這件事的主要工具......是元基因組學。

This is actually something I'm using in my own research on bacterial communities,

這實際上是我在自己的細菌群落研究中使用的東西。

so let's break it down together.!

所以讓我們一起來分析一下。

In metagenomic sequencing, we take a sample—that

在元基因組測序中，我們取一個樣本，即

can be soil, ocean water, a bodily fluid—and we purify it down to the genetic material

可以是土壤、海水，也可以是體液--我們將其提純到遺傳物質。

of just the stuff we're looking for. In this case, let's say it's viruses.

的只是我們要找的東西。在這種情況下，我們就說是病毒。

So now we have the genomes of all the viruses in our sample. Lets picture each virus's genome

所以現在我們有了樣本中所有病毒的基因組。讓我們描繪一下每個病毒的基因組

as a piece of paper with sentences on it.

作為一張寫有句子的紙。

Because the next step—and this sounds nuts— is that we rip each

因為下一步--這聽起來很瘋狂--是我們把每個人都撕碎。

piece of paper up into little strips with just sentences on them.

將一張紙抽成小條，上面只有句子。

We do this because our sequencing

我們這樣做是因為我們的測序

machine has to 'read' all of these genomes.

機器必須 "閱讀 "所有這些基因組。

And, if you can picture, it's much faster for lots of people to each read a sentence.

而且，如果你能想象，很多人每人讀一個句子會快得多。

And they can each read their sentence at the same time a sentence

他們可以在同一時間讀他們的句子，一個句子

than it is for one person to read a whole page, one at a time.

比起一個人讀一整頁，一次讀一整頁。

That's what we're doing

這就是我們正在做的事情

when we divide our genome up into little chunks. Now that we've read the sentences in a super

當我們把我們的基因組抽成小塊的時候。現在，我們已經閱讀了在一個超級的句子

efficient way, we can put the sentences back together into the full page, or the full genome.

高效的方式，我們可以把這些句子重新組合成完整的頁面，或完整的基因組。

Then we compare that to a library full of known genomes.

然後我們將其與一個充滿已知基因組的圖書館進行比較。

So we can say, 'this unknown page is the same as this known page that we have on file'.

所以我們可以說，'這個未知的頁面與我們存檔的這個已知的頁面是一樣的'。

It's a match! We've ID'ed the virus in our sample.

吻合了!我們已經確定了樣品中的病毒。

And we do this for every virus in our sample.

我們對樣本中的每一種病毒都這樣做。

Metagenomic sequencing is an

元基因組測序是一種

incredibly useful tool that lets us identify huge numbers of microbes really fast.

令人難以置信的有用工具，使我們能夠真正快速地識別大量的微生物。

And as scientists have turned that powerful lens on our world to catalogue viruses...they've

當科學家們將這一強大的鏡頭轉向我們的世界，對病毒進行分類時......他們已經

been astonished at just how many they're finding, everywhere. In the ocean, in our

他們發現的數量之多，令人吃驚，無處不在。在海洋中，在我們的

wastewater, inside the spiders in our gardens and of course, inside us. Most of them are

廢水，在我們的花園裡的蜘蛛裡面，當然還有在我們的體內。它們中的大多數是

totally harmless to humans, and many of them are totally new to science!

對人類完全無害，而且其中許多都是科學上的新東西！"。

The viruses in the ocean? They're preying on other marine microorganisms, releasing

海洋中的病毒？它們在捕食其他海洋微生物，釋放出

nutrients. This may be the bottommost foundation of the ocean's food web.

營養物質。這可能是海洋食物網的最底層基礎。

The viruses in every ecosystem? They help maintain our planet's biodiversity by keeping

每個生態系統中的病毒？它們幫助維持我們星球的生物多樣性，保持

other species in check. If viruses suddenly vanished from the planet, it's likely that

其他物種受到控制。如果病毒突然從地球上消失了，很可能是

the balance of other organisms would rapidly get out of whack.

其他生物體的平衡將迅速失調。

And one other major result of all this sequencing is a new understanding of just how thoroughly

而所有這些測序的另一個主要結果是，人們對以下問題有了新的認識：1.

viruses have shaped life on Earth as we know it.

病毒塑造了我們所知的地球上的生命。

Because they invade living cells to replicate, they're equipped to take over a host's

由於它們入侵活體細胞進行復制，它們有能力接管宿主的

genetic replication machinery—sometimes, viral genetic material gets incorporated into

遺傳複製機器--有時，病毒的遺傳物質被納入到

the host's. It's estimated that around 8% of human DNA actually came from a virus,

宿主的。據估計，大約8%的人類DNA實際上來自於病毒。

including some of our most important skills. Like, the ability of modern humans to give

包括我們一些最重要的技能。比如，現代人的能力，給

birth probably came from a piece of viral genetic code that jumped over to its mammalian

它的誕生可能來自於一段病毒的遺傳代碼，它跳到了哺乳動物身上。

host about 130 million years ago. That gave us our ability to grow a placenta. So, yep.

宿主大約在1.3億年前。這使我們有能力生長出胎盤。所以，是的。

We got hacked, and it's probably the reason we don't lay eggs.

我們被黑了，這可能是我們不下蛋的原因。

Scientists don't know how many more viruses are out there, waiting to be discovered. And

科學家們不知道還有多少病毒在那裡，等待著被發現。而且

of those, we have no idea how many of them may be harmful to us.

中，我們不知道其中有多少可能對我們有害。

But sequencing at least some of those nonillion viruses out there is the first step. The next

但是，至少對那些nonillion病毒中的一部分進行測序是第一步。下一步

step is to identify what they're living inside...and how exactly these tiny, invisible

第一步是確定它們住在什麼地方......以及這些微小的、看不見的東西究竟是如何被發現的。

puppeteers are pulling the strings of our natural world.

木偶人正在拉動我們自然世界的線。

If you want more on just how many viruses are in our oceans and what they're doing

如果你想了解更多關於我們的海洋中有多少病毒以及它們在做什麼的資訊

there, you can check out this video, and leave us a comment down below if there's another

在那裡，你可以查看這個視頻，並在下面給我們留言，如果有另一個

viral topic you'd like to see us cover. Keep coming back to Seeker for all your microbial

你希望看到我們報道的病毒性話題。請繼續關注Seeker，瞭解您所有的微生物。

updates and as always, thanks for watching. I'll see ya next time.

更新，並一如既往地感謝您的觀看。下一次見。