关于基因你需要知道的13句话-中英双语
本文来源《Gene A intimate history》的后记，是全书的精华所在。翻译有误，请方家见谅。
1 A gene is the basic unit of hereditary information. It carries the information needed to build, maintain, and repair organisms. Genes collaborate with other genes, with inputs from the environment, with triggers, and with random chance to produce the ultimate form and function of an organism.
基因是基本的遗传单位。基因存储建造维护修复有机物所需的信息。基因之间的相互合作，和环境的交互，受环境中触发物的影响以及随机因素决定了一个有机体的机能。
2 The genetic code is universal. A gene from a blue whale can be inserted into a microscopic bacterium and it will be deciphered accurately and with nearly perfect fidelity. A corollary: there is nothing particularly special about human genes.
基因编码是通用的。一个来自与蓝鲸的基因可以被插入到细菌中并发挥分毫不差的功能，因此人类基因没有特别之处。
3 Genes influence form, function, and fate, but these influences typically do not occur in a one-to-one manner.Most human attributes are the consequence of more than one gene; many are the result of collaborations between genes, environments, and chance. Most of these interactions are nonsystematic—i.e., they occur through the intersection between a genome and fundamentally unpredictable events. And some genes tend to influence only propensities and tendencies. We can thus reliably predict the ultimate effect of a mutation or variation on an organism for only a minor subset of genes.
基因影响功能，但这些影响通常都不是一一对应的。大部分人类的特征可以被归结到不止一个基因的影响上，更多的是基因，环境和随机因素共同作用的结果。这些相互作用不是系统性的，有些基因会只影响面对环境因素时的倾向或加速度。因此，我们智能准确的预测很少一部分基因的影响。
4 Variations in genes contribute to variations in features, forms, and behaviors. When we use the colloquial terms gene for blue eyes or gene for height, we are really referring to a variation (or allele) that specifies an eye color or height. These variations constitute an extremely minor portion of the genome. They are magnified in our imagination because of cultural, and possibly biological, tendencies that tend to amplify differences. A six-foot man from Denmark and a four-foot man from Demba share the same anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry. Even the two most extreme human variants—male and female—share 99.688 percent of their genes
基因间的差异决定了功能性状行为上的差异。当我们谈论基因时，由于我们的文化习惯性的关注差异，我们更多的谈论的是基因之间的差异，即使是男人和女人，也有99.688%的基因是相同的。
5 When we claim to find “genes for” certain human features or functions, it is by virtue of defining that feature narrowly. It makes sense to define “genes for” blood type or “genes for” height since these biological attributes have intrinsically narrow definitions. But it is an old sin of biology to confuse the definition of a feature with the feature itself. If we define “beauty” as having blue eyes (and only blue eyes), then we will, indeed, find a “gene for beauty.” If we define “intelligence” as the performance on only one kind of problem in only one kind of test, then we will, indeed, find a “gene for intelligence.” The genome is only a mirror for the breadth or narrowness of human imagination. It is Narcissus, reflected.
当我们宣称我们找到了人类某特征的基因时，我们其实是将这个特征狭隘的定义了。决定血型和身高的基因是有意义的，然而，我们不应把一项特征的定义当成了这项特征本身。如果我们把美丽定义为有蓝眼睛，并仅仅是有蓝眼睛，那么我们的确已找到了美丽基因。如果我们把聪慧定义为会解某类问题，如逻辑推理题，那么我们已近找到了所谓的聪明基因。我们对基因组的认识反映了我们想象力的缺失。
6 It is nonsense to speak about “nature” or “nurture” in absolutes or abstracts. Whether nature—i.e., the gene—or nurture—i.e., the environment—dominates in the development of a feature or function depends, acutely, on the individual feature and the context. The SRY gene determines sexual anatomy and physiology in a strikingly autonomous manner; it is all nature. Gender identity, sexual preference, and the choice of sexual roles are determined by intersections of genes and environments—i.e., nature plus nurture. The manner in which “masculinity” versus “femininity” is enacted or perceived in a society, in contrast, is largely determined by an environment, social memory, history, and culture; this is all nurture.
把先天和后天孤立来看，是不负责任的，究竟是先天还是后天因素决定了一项性状，取决于待考察的特征和其所处的位置。Y 染色体上的 SRY基因决定了男性的体征和解剖上的结构，这里先天因素占主导，但个体的性别认同，性取向是由先天和后天的交互影响造就的。我们对男性和女性的认识，是由文化和历史决定的，这都是后天的。
7 Every generation of humans will produce variants and mutants; it is an inextricable part of our biology. A mutation is only “abnormal” in a statistical sense: it is the less common variant. The desire to homogenize and “normalize” humans must be counterbalanced against biological imperatives to maintain diversity and abnormalcy. Normalcy is the antithesis of evolution.
每一个人都会产生并携带新的变异，这是生物不可避免的一部分。变异是否正常，是个统计学意义上的概念。我们想要同化或正常化人类的想法，但保证基因多样性更不可缺少，一切都正常了，就没有了进化的原材料了。
8 . Many human diseases—including several illnesses previously thought to be related to diet, exposure, environment, and chance are powerfully influenced or caused by genes. Most of these diseases are polygenic i.e., influenced by multiple genes. These illnesses are heritable i.e. caused by the intersection of a particular permutation of genes but not easilyinheritable i.e., likely to be transmitted intact to the next generation, since the permutations of genes are remixed in each generation. Instances of each single gene monogenic disease are rare, but, in sum, they turn out to be surprisinglycommon. More than ten thousand such diseases have been defined thus far. Between one in a hundred and one in two hundred children will be born with a monogenic disease.
很多疾病，包括之前以为和饮食，环境等相关的，事实上很大一部分是由基因决定的。大部分这些疾病是由多基因决定的，他们可以遗传，但并不是由遗传唯一决定的。每一代的基因都会经历重组，基因的组合被重新洗牌。由单一基因影响的疾病是罕见的，但加起来，已知的超过一万多种单基因病却是占到了人群中的1%，新生儿中的2%。
9 Every genetic “illness” is a mismatch between an organism’s genome and its environment. In some cases, the appropriate medical intervention to mitigate a disease might be to alter the environment to make it “fit” an organismal form (building alternative architectural realms for those with dwarfism; imagining alternative educational landscapes for children with autism). In other cases, conversely, it might mean changing genes to fit environments. In yet other cases, the match may be impossible to achieve: the severest forms of genetic illnesses, such as those caused by nonfunct
每一种基因上的疾病都是个体的基因组和环境错配的结果，有些情况下，适宜的医疗干预是改变环境，有些时候是改变基因。认为一点要改变基因而不是环境，是一种现代化下的误解。
10 In exceptional cases, the genetic incompatibility may be so deep that only extraordinary measures, such as genetic selection, or directed genetic interventions, are justified. Until we understand the many unintended consequences of selecting genes and modifying genomes, it is safer to categorize such cases as exceptions rather than rules.
在极端情况下，选择性的基因干预是必要的。然而，在我们完全搞清楚诸多选择基因的未预料的后果前，我们需要谨慎的修改基因组，我们应该把我们掌握的案例当成是意味而不是普遍规律。
11. There is nothing about genes or genomes that makes them inherently resistant to chemical and biological manipulation. The standard notion that “most human features are the result of complex gene-environment interactions and most are the result of multiple genes” is absolutely true. But while these complexities constrain the ability to manipulate genes, they leave plenty of opportunity for potent forms of gene modification. Master regulators that affect dozens of genes are common in human biology. An epigenetic modifier may be designed to change the state of hundreds of genes with a single switch. The genome is replete with such nodes of intervention.
基因中没有什么使他们能抵抗生物的或者化学的操纵。尽管面临着诸 多复杂性，基因修改仍然是可行的。例如基因组上普遍存在的表观修饰。 参考 表观遗传101-看图说话版
12. A triangle of considerations extraordinary suffering, highly penetrant genotypes, and justifiable interventions has, thus far, constrained our attempts to intervene on humans. As we loosen the boundaries of this triangle (by changing the standards for “extraordinary suffering” or “justifiable interventions”), we need new biological, cultural, and social precepts to determine which genetic interventions may be permitted or constrained, and the circumstances in which these interventions become safe or permissible.
针对基因编辑或基因疗法等修改人类基因组的意图，必须同时满足强烈的痛苦，高发病率，可控的干预这三个条件。那些基因干预是可行的，那些是不可行的，由我们的社会，文化，生物上的观念决定。
13. History repeats itself, in part because the genome repeats itself. And the genome repeats itself, in part because history does. The impulses, ambitions, fantasies, and desires that drive human history are, at least in part, encoded in the human genome. And human history has, in turn, selected genomes that carry these impulses, ambitions, fantasies, and desires. This self-fulfilling circle of logic is responsible for some of the most magnificent and evocative qualities in our species, but also some of the most reprehensible. It is far too much to ask ourselves to escape the orbit of this logic, but recognizing its inherent circularity, and being skeptical of its overreach, might protect the weak from the will of the strong, and the “mutant” from being annihilated by the “normal.”
正如历史会有重复的章节，基因组上也会有重复。基因的重复，有时是因为历史的重复，我们用自己的冲动，野心，幻想和欲望选择着我们自己的基因。这成就了一个闭环的逻辑，人类作为一个物种，最举挑战的就是认识到这里的反身性，并对其心怀敬畏，不要让我们人类界定的异常或正常的标准变成了强者拒绝保护弱者的借口。
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