Researchers Study Coffee's Beginnings
The coffee you had this morning could have its beginnings some 600,000 years ago.
你今天早上喝的咖啡可能起源于大约 60 万年前。
Using genes from coffee plants from around the world, researchers built a family tree for the world's most popular kind of coffee. Scientists call it Coffea arabica. Coffee lovers know it simply as "arabica".
研究人员利用世界各地咖啡植物的基因，为世界上最受欢迎的咖啡种类建立了一个家族图谱。科学家称它为阿拉比卡种。咖啡爱好者就叫它 “阿拉比卡”。
The researchers recently published a new study about coffee. They found that the species appeared around 600,000 years ago. The plant was likely the result of natural breeding of two other coffee species.
研究人员最近发表了一项关于咖啡的新研究。他们发现，该物种出现于大约 60 万年前。阿拉比卡种很可能是其他两种咖啡植株自然繁殖的结果。
Wild coffee plants likely started in Ethiopia. But they are thought to have been first roasted and brewed in Yemen starting in the 1400s. In the 1600s, Indian monk Baba Budan is said to have taken seven raw coffee beans back to his homeland from Yemen, laying the beginnings for coffee's worldwide takeover.
野生咖啡植株很可能起源于埃塞俄比亚。但人们认为，从 15 世纪开始，它们最早是在也门被用来烘焙和煮的。17 世纪，据说印度僧侣巴巴·布丹从也门带回了 7 颗生咖啡豆，为咖啡在全球的普及奠定了基础。
Arabica coffee, loved for its smooth and sweet flavor, now makes up 60 to 70 percent of the global coffee market. The rest of the market is made up of robusta.
阿拉比卡咖啡因其醇厚且香甜的口味而深受喜爱，目前占全球咖啡市场的 60% 至 70%。其余市场份额由罗布斯塔咖啡占据。
The arabica plant's population changed over thousands of years before humans began growing it. The arabica plants did well during warm, wet periods and suffered through dry ones. These difficult times created what scientists call "population bottlenecks", when only a small number of genetically similar plants survived.
在人类开始种植阿拉比卡植株之前的数千年里，阿拉比卡植株的种群发生了变化。在温暖、潮湿的时期，阿拉比卡植株生长良好，而在干燥的时期，阿拉比卡植株则饱受折磨。这些困难时期造成了科学家所说的 “种群瓶颈”，即只有少量基因相似的植物存活下来。
Today, these genetic similarities mean arabica coffee plants are more likely to be hurt by diseases like coffee leaf rust, which causes costly losses every year. The researchers explored the makeup of one arabica variety that is resistant to coffee leaf rust. They are interested in parts of its genetic code that could help protect the plant.
如今，这些基因相似性意味着阿拉比卡植株更容易受到咖啡叶锈病等病害的伤害，这些病害每年都会对其造成惨重的损失。研究人员探索了一种对咖啡叶锈病有抗性的阿拉比卡品种的构成。他们对该品种基因代码中有助于保护该植株的部分很感兴趣。
Exploring arabica's past and present could help give information about how to keep coffee plants healthy –ensuring morning cups of coffee into the future.
对阿拉比卡种的过去和现在进行探索，有助于提供有关如何保持咖啡植株健康的信息，从而确保我们在未来的早晨都能喝到咖啡。
整理：2024年5月12日于阿良烤鸡
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