TED演講者：Guntur V. Subbarao / 貢圖爾·V·蘇巴拉奧

演講標(biāo)題：The wheat field that could change the world / 能改變世界的麥田

內(nèi)容概要：Crop physiologist Guntur V. Subbarao and his team have developed an antibiotic-infused strain of wheat that naturally combats harmful, fertilizer-eating bacteria -- a "monster" contributor to climate change. Learn more about how this breakthrough could once again revolutionize agriculture, increasing crop yields and protecting our planet at the same time.

作物生理學(xué)家貢圖爾·V·蘇巴拉奧（Guntur V. Subbarao）和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)研發(fā)了一種含有抗生素的小麥品種，它天生能對抗一種有害細(xì)菌，這種細(xì)菌如同怪物一般，會吸收肥料，甚至能引起氣候變化。來聽聽這項(xiàng)突破如何一箭三雕：再次改變農(nóng)業(yè)、增加糧食產(chǎn)量、保護(hù)我們的地球。

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【1】What you see over there is elite modern-day wheat lines that have a special ability to produce large amounts of antibiotics from the root systems.

你眼前的是 一款優(yōu)質(zhì)的現(xiàn)代小麥品種, 它有一種特殊的能力, 根系能夠產(chǎn)生大量的抗生素。

【2】You may be wondering, why do we need antibiotics from the wheat root systems?

你可能在想, 為什么我們需要小麥根系 產(chǎn)生的抗生素呢？

【3】You only take antibiotics when you are sick, isn't it?

你只有在生病的時候 才會去吃抗生素,對吧？

【4】The agricultural systems, the modern farming systems have become increasingly sick lately.

農(nóng)業(yè)系統(tǒng), 現(xiàn)代的農(nóng)耕系統(tǒng) 最近也病得越來越厲害了。

【5】They are so sick that nearly 70 percent of the nitrogen fertilizers that are being applied to farmlands are being leaked out.

病重到農(nóng)田上用的 70% 的氮肥 都泄漏了。

【6】They're leaking nitrogen uncontrollably.

氮一發(fā)不可收拾地泄漏了出來。

【7】If you look at the nitrogen fertilizer consumption from the beginning of the Green Revolution, it has grown nearly 30 fold.

對比一下綠色革命初期的 氮肥用量, 如今已經(jīng)翻了將近 30 倍。

【8】From five million metric tons at the beginning of the Green Revolution, to 150 million metric tons, what we are currently using.

從綠色革命初期的 500 萬噸, 漲到今天的 1.5 億噸。

【9】A 30-fold increase in nitrogen fertilizer consumption has resulted in a four-fold increase in global food grain production.

氮肥用量 30 倍的暴漲 促使全球糧食產(chǎn)量翻了 4 倍。

【10】Of course, we all know that the Green Revolution has transformed the global food grain production, saved us from famine, food scarcities, and provided the global food security.

當(dāng)然我們都知道 綠色革命徹底改變了 全球糧食生產(chǎn), 讓我們免受饑荒、 糧食不足的侵?jǐn)_, 保障了全球的糧食安全。

【11】But you have to ask yourself.

但是捫心自問一下。

【12】A 30-fold increase in nitrogen fertilizer consumption is supporting only four-fold increase in food grain production.

氮肥用量翻了 30 倍, 卻只讓糧食生產(chǎn)翻了 4 倍。

【13】What's happening?

怎么回事？

【14】When you apply nitrogen fertilizers, it is mostly in ammonium form.

我們所施的氮肥, 大部分是銨態(tài)氮肥。

【15】Ammonium form binds the soil, doesn't move.

銨態(tài)氮跟土壤結(jié)合,不易流失。

【16】Doesn't create any harmful nitrogen byproducts.

不會產(chǎn)生有害的氮副產(chǎn)品。

【17】There's no problem with ammonium nitrogen.

銨態(tài)氮沒什么問題。

【18】But there is a little bacteria, lives in the soil, that started eating away this fertilizer, nitrogen ammonium, and spitting it out into nitrate.

但是土壤里有一種小小的細(xì)菌, 它們會吸收肥料,即銨態(tài)氮, 再以硝酸鹽形態(tài)排出。

【19】And also it's making many other harmful nitrogen byproducts.

與此同時還產(chǎn)生許多其他 有害的氮副產(chǎn)品。

【20】The problem with the nitrates is, though many plants can use nitrates as a nitrogen source, but nitrogen cannot bind to the soil.

硝酸鹽的問題是, 雖然很多植物都可以 將硝酸鹽用做氮元素來源, 但是氮不會被鎖在土壤中。

【21】It washes out.

它會被沖走。

【22】If you have rain, if you have irrigation, it washes out from the farmlands.

如果下雨、灌溉, 氮就從農(nóng)田里流走了。

【23】That is the problem.

這就是問題所在。

【24】This little bacteria [that] used to be a small, subdued microbial activity in the soil biological activity, has grown now into a monster.

這小小的細(xì)菌 曾經(jīng)那么微不足道, 只是土壤生物活動中微小的一環(huán), 現(xiàn)在卻成了一個大麻煩。

【25】It's consuming nearly 95 to 99 percent of the fertilizer nitrogen and splitting it out into nitrates.

它會消耗氮肥中 95% 至 99% 的氮, 再以硝酸鹽的形態(tài)將其排出。

【26】We should be asking, are we fertilizing our crops, or are we fertilizing this little bacteria which we have helped to grow into a big monster?

我們不得不思考, 我們到底是在滋養(yǎng)作物, 還是在親手養(yǎng)大 這后患無窮的小小細(xì)菌？

【27】This is what happens when the nitrogen moves into water streams, pollutes lakes, triggers algal blooms and creates another Green Revolution.

氮排入水源就會發(fā)生這種情況, 污染湖泊, 讓水藻泛濫, 引發(fā)另一場“綠色革命”。

【28】If you don't keep the nitrogen in farmlands, if you allow it to move into the water bodies, to the larger ecosystem, it creates another Green Revolution in a ecologically destructive way.

如果不把氮留在農(nóng)田里, 而讓它自由地流入水域, 流入更大規(guī)模的生態(tài)系統(tǒng), 就會導(dǎo)致另一場 破壞生態(tài)的綠色革命。

【29】If you look at the soil, it's a living biological system.

仔細(xì)看看土壤, 你會發(fā)現(xiàn)它是一個 活體生物系統(tǒng)。

【30】An invisible microbial world.

一個看不見的微生物世界。

【31】There's a large microbial universe operating in these soil systems.

土壤系統(tǒng)里有一個 廣袤的微生物世界。

【32】They are involved in numerous functions, breaking down everything into individual components, nourishing our crops to grow and produce food.

包含了各種各樣的功能, 將萬物分解成獨(dú)立的成分, 滋養(yǎng)作物生長并生產(chǎn)糧食。

【33】It's so complex.

它太復(fù)雜了。

【34】It's much, much bigger than the ecosystem that we know, the ecosystem above the ground that we know.

比我們所熟知的、 地面的生態(tài)系統(tǒng),要大得多。

【35】It's much more complex.

錯綜復(fù)雜得多。

【36】Just to give you an example, a gram of soil would have about 10 billion microbial cells.

舉個例子, 一克土壤可能包含了 100 億個微生物細(xì)胞。

【37】Ten billion microbes in a gram of soil, doing various functions.

100 億個微生物在這 一克土壤里各司其職。

【38】It's much larger than the entire human population, what you see on Earth.

這比地球上所有人口都多得多。

【39】This microbial universe is affected, affected so severely, from the last seven decades of the Green Revolution.

微生物宇宙受到了影響, 嚴(yán)重的影響, 都是過去七十年里的 綠色革命惹的禍。

【40】Particularly, the infusion of large amounts of nitrogen fertilizers caused disruption to this microbial activity and changed the population dynamics.

尤其是 氮肥的大量使用 導(dǎo)致了微生物活動的紊亂, 改變了微生物種群的動態(tài)。

【41】As I said, what used to be a small, insignificant microbial activity in the soil has grown into a monstrous proportion, sucking up all the fertilizer nitrogen [that] we are applying.

如我所說,以前土壤中 這微不足道的微生物活動 已經(jīng)長成了龐然大物, 吸收了我們投入的所有氮肥。

【42】Nature has evolved many solutions to some of the problems we are facing in agriculture and some of the problems we are going to create and face in the future.

自然界提供了許多對策, 不僅幫我們解決今天的一些農(nóng)業(yè)問題, 甚至包括一些還未制造出來 但未來終將面對的問題。

【43】What you see over there is a Brachiaria tropical pasture grass.

圖上的是臂形熱帶牧草 （Brachiaria tropical pasture grass）。

【44】It grows extensively in South America.

它廣泛產(chǎn)于南美。

【45】It has a unique ability.

它有一種獨(dú)特的能力。

【46】It produces large amounts of antibiotics from the root systems.

它的根系可以產(chǎn)生大量的抗生素。

【47】These antibiotics are specifically directed to this little bacteria, we say the nitrifying bacteria.

這種抗生素會直達(dá) 一種小小的細(xì)菌, 即“硝化”細(xì)菌。

【48】Because of that, it tightly controls this nitrifying bacteria function in the soil.

抗生素抑制了 硝化細(xì)菌在土壤里的活動。

【49】It doesn't allow it to function.

不讓細(xì)菌發(fā)生反應(yīng)。

【50】It doesn't kill that bacteria, but it doesn’t allow it to function, just [keeps] them in a kind of coma state.

它不會殺死細(xì)菌, 但也不會讓細(xì)菌產(chǎn)生作用, 只是讓細(xì)菌進(jìn)入類似休眠的狀態(tài)。

【51】Because of that, you don't see any kind of nitrate formation in these tropical pastures.

因此, 在這類熱帶牧草中 不會出現(xiàn)任何硝酸鹽。

【52】In particular, this tropical pasture grass.

尤其是這個品種的熱帶牧草。

【53】And also, you don’t see any nitrogen gas emitted from these pastures.

它也不會釋放任何氮?dú)狻?/p>

【54】No nitrous oxide is emitted from these pastures because it controls these bacteria so tightly by producing large amounts of antibiotics from the root systems.

不會釋放一氧化二氮, 因?yàn)樗ㄟ^根系產(chǎn)生大量抗生素 嚴(yán)格控制著這種細(xì)菌。

【55】The question is, how do we bring this kind of ability into our crop lands?

問題是, 我們怎么把這種能力 運(yùn)用到農(nóng)田里呢？

【56】Most of our food production comes from four crops: Wheat, maize, rice and sorghum.

我們大部分的糧食生產(chǎn) 都來自這 4 種作物: 小麥、玉米、水稻和高粱。

【57】These are the four crop that provide the global food security.

這 4 類作物 保障了全球糧食供應(yīng)。

【58】Almost 80 to 90 percent of the food grains are produced from these four crops.

大約 80% 至 90% 的糧食 都來自于這 4 種作物。

【59】And also ... more than 90 percent of the entire nitrogen fertilizer produced industrially goes to these four production systems.

與此同時,超過 90% 工業(yè)生產(chǎn)的氮肥 會進(jìn)入這 4 種糧食生產(chǎn)系統(tǒng)。

【60】These food crops, the staple crops, don't have much ability.

這類作物,大宗作物, 沒有什么固持氮的能力。

【61】That's the reason they are leaking.

所以氮肥直接流出來了。

【62】So, if you look at this, you see the wild wheat.

圖上是野生小麥。

【63】It has the ability to produce 20 to 30 times antibiotics from the root systems.

它的根系可以產(chǎn)生 20 至 30 倍的抗生素。

【64】Our group has worked for the last 15 years to try and locate the genomic region responsible for producing these antibiotics and transfer to the cultivated wheat.

我的團(tuán)隊(duì)在過去的 15 年里一直在 嘗試定位負(fù)責(zé)生產(chǎn) 這些抗生素的基因區(qū)域, 并試圖將這個片段移植到 人工栽培的小麥上。

【65】We have done it.

我們做到了。

【66】You see that the orange, orange is here part of the chromosome that is coming from the wild wheat, which is coding the antibiotics.

大家看圖上的橙色區(qū)域, 橙色部分是 來自野生小麥的染色體, 它負(fù)責(zé)為抗生素編碼。

【67】We have got that integrated to the wheat genome without disrupting the elite [agronomic] architecture of the wheat system, and also without disrupting the yield potential and without interfering with the bread-making quality of the wheat.

我們把這個部分 移入了小麥的基因組, 沒有影響小麥系統(tǒng)的 優(yōu)質(zhì)農(nóng)業(yè)結(jié)構(gòu), 沒有影響產(chǎn)量潛力, 也沒有影響用它們 做出的面包的品質(zhì)。

【68】This new category of wheats we call BNI-wheats, the wheats that can produce large amounts of antibiotics from the root systems to control this bacteria so that they can control the nitrate production in the root systems.

我們將這個全新的品種 稱為“BNI 小麥”, 可以從根系產(chǎn)生大量抗生素, 抑制細(xì)菌的活動, 從而抑制根系里硝酸鹽的生成。

【69】Because of this, the nitrogen fertilizer, whatever we are applying, would stay in the [root-zone], doesn’t leak.

由此, 氮肥和我們施下的各種化肥, 都會留在根系中,不會泄漏。

【70】Look at the the BNI wheats, well, it looks quite healthy and green.

看看 BNI 小麥, 看起來非常健康青翠。

【71】You see the right side, that is the current modern wheats, which leaks out all the nitrogen, whatever we have applied.

對比一下右邊, 是現(xiàn)有的現(xiàn)代小麥, 我們投下的所有氮 都會從中流失。

【72】Both the plants were applied the same amount of nitrogen at exactly the same time.

我們在同一時間給兩片小麥 施用了等量的氮。

【73】In one case, it leaked out.

一個品種會讓氮流出。

【74】In the other case, it remained in the farmland.

另一個品種會讓氮留在農(nóng)田里。

【75】These are the BNI wheats.

這些就是 BNI 小麥。

【76】These are the next generation wheats under development.

它們是正在研發(fā)中的 下一代小麥。

【77】So in a few years from now, they will be available to the farmers.

接下來的幾年內(nèi), 這些小麥會到農(nóng)民手中。

【78】So our hope is, in the next 10 years, most of the wheats that are grown in different parts of the world would have this kind of ability so that the nitrogen leakage can be stopped by infusing these large amounts of antibiotics from the root systems.

我們希望在未來 10 年內(nèi), 世界各地種植的大部分小麥 都能擁有這種能力, 通過根系產(chǎn)生 大量抗生素, 阻止氮素流失。

【79】That’s what is going to control -- that’s what is going to reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer in future ... in wheat root systems.

這就是我們從小麥根系中找到的, 能在未來減少氮肥用量的方法。

【80】Thank you.

謝謝。

【81】(Applause)