有番茄味的番茄渐成传说?

作为“番茄控”一枚，小编我在生活里一日不可无番茄。尽管如今的番茄吃起来，怎么也找不到小时候那种原滋原味。蜂蜜们，不知你们有没有发现这一点呢？

到底番茄的番茄味是如何逐渐消失的？就让我们在本期的《无限播客》栏目里，跟随科学家一探究竟。

Audie Cornish: We’re going to take a few minutes to talk about the state of the modern tomato. Today, scientists revealed a small but 1)intriguing chapter in the story of the tomato, a story, some would say, of its downfall.

Dan Charles: We’ll start with the old tomatoes, varieties that people grew a century or more ago. Some people still grow them, like Eric Rice at Country Pleasures

奥迪·科尼什：我们将花一些时间来说说现代番茄的情形。今天，科学家们揭露了在番茄的历史中一段微不足道但令人好奇的时期，有人会说，是关于番茄毁灭的时期。

丹·查尔斯：我们将从早期的番茄说起，那些人类在一个世纪或者更早以前种植的品种，有些人仍然在种植它们，就像在马里

were making these old tomatoes sweeter and creating more flavor. The uniform ripening mutation disabled this gene.

Dr. Harry Klee: We find out that, oh, my goodness, this is one of the factors that actually has led to the 14)deterioration of flavor in the commercial tomato.

Dan: That’s Harry Klee, a professor at the University of Florida. Klee has been exploring the chemistry and genetics of tomato taste. He says tomato breeders made a lot of 15)compromises like this over the years as they created tomato plants that produce more fruit and firmer, more rugged fruit. But now, Klee says, with some of this new science, we have a chance to undo some of those decisions.

Harry: You know, so what I tell people is that we can get 100% of the flavor and 80% of the agricultural performance of the modern varieties with very little work.

Dan: We can start with some of the best heirlooms and then bring in some of the disease resistance genes that modern varieties have, increase yields at least a little bit. Consumers may have to change their expectations, Klee says. They may have to get used to tomatoes with green shoulders, for instance.

Harry: They’re going to have to go in and say, oh, look, that one’s got that little 16)discoloration at the top, that means it must be good.

Dan: But these tomato plants probably won’t produce as big a harvest, Klee says. So the only way they’re likely to show up in your local grocery store is if consumers can recognize them and pay a little more for them.

早期的番茄更甜，并产生了更浓的香味。一致成熟度的突变破坏了这种基因。

哈利·克里博士：我们发现，啊，天啦，这是导致批量生产的番茄丧失番茄味道的实际原因之一。

丹：这是哈利·克里，佛罗里达大学的一名教授。克里正在从化学和遗传学的角度探究番茄的味道。他说番茄育种家们多年来在培育出能产出更多果实和更坚固更强壮的果实的番茄植株的同时，像这样尝试过许多折衷的办法。但现在，克里说，有一些这样的新科学的情况下，我们有希望取消一些决定。

哈利：所以我告诉人们的是，我们可以通过非常少量的工作来得到百分之百的（番茄）滋味，又达到现代（番茄）品种农业生产情况的百分之八十的样子。

丹：我们一开始可以用一些最好的天然番茄，然后加入现代品种拥有的一些抗病基因，至少增加一点儿产量。消费者的期望也许必须有所改变，比如他们可能必须习惯有绿色果肩的番茄。

哈利：他们会进来说，哦，看啊，那一个顶端有块变色，那说明它一定是好的。

丹：克里说，但是这些番茄很可能不会获得大丰收。因此也许它们出现在你们当地杂货店的唯一途径就是看消费者能否认出它们并多付一点钱来买下它们。

9) stumble across 偶然发现

10) genetically engineered 经过基因改良的

11) gene [?????] n. 遗传因子，基因

12) arabidopsis [????????????] n. 拟南芥，一种重要的模式植物，广泛应用于实验室研究

13) chlorophyll [??????????] n. [生化] 叶绿素

14) deterioration [??7?????????????] n. 恶化；变坏；退化

15) compromise [???????????] n. 中间物，折衷物

16) discoloration [???7???????????] n. 变色，污点