Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service are testing a fungus that could one day be sent into battle against the land-grabbing vine, kudzu.

    來自美國農業部農業研究局的科學家們正測試一種真菌，這種真菌在將來可用于消滅爭奪土地的葛藤。

    Fungus Could Be Kudzu Killer

    It's been called the "vine that ate the south." Kudzu grows so fast it can completely cover a cabin in the woods in a couple of days. The invasive plant takes over another 150,000 acres every year. Which costs another $6 million to control.

    But plant pathologists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Research Service have gotten promising results with a fungus that itself rapidly spreads in kudzu. The fungus is called Myrothecium verrucaria. In early tests, the fungus killed all kudzu seedlings and at least 90 percent of older plants. Most important, Myrothecium did little or no damage to the species that commonly live in habitats infested with kudzu, such as pine, oak, cedar, pecan, hickory, blackberry and, of course, sassafras.

    So what's the catch? The fungus produces chemicals called tricothecenes, which can damage the health of humans and animals. But the researchers discovered that if they grew the fungus in a fermenter or on a liquid diet, the production of the toxins fell precipitously. If the fungus can be safely let loose one day, it could finally give kudzu the heave-ho.

    真菌可以用于消滅葛藤

    人們一直都說"葛藤吞噬了南方".葛藤長得很快，它能在幾天內完全覆蓋森林中的一座小木屋。這種侵略性的植物每年侵蝕超過15萬畝的土地，控制葛藤對土地的侵蝕每年要耗費6百萬美元。

    不過美國農業部農業研究局的植物病理學家們使用一種能在葛藤上快速生長的真菌控制葛藤的侵蝕，他們得到了很好的研究結果。這種真菌稱為"疣孢漆斑真菌"（Myrothecium verrucaria）.在早期的測試中，這種真菌殺死了所有的葛藤種子，并且殺死了至少90%的老葛藤。最重要的是，"疣孢漆斑真菌"對通常被葛藤覆蓋的植物的損害很少，或者沒有損害，這些植物包括松樹、橡樹、雪松、美洲山核桃、山核桃、黑莓以及檫樹。

    這里面有什么秘密呢？這種真菌產生稱為單端孢霉烯的化學物質，這種化學物質對人類和動物有害。但是，研究者們發現，如果他們在發酵池中或者液體培養液中種植這種真菌的話，這種真菌所產生的毒素會大量下降。如果將來這種真菌能安全使用，那么它可能最終會把葛藤消滅掉。

    Vocabulary:

    Fungus:真菌

    Vine:藤蔓

    Kudzu:葛藤

    Cabin:小木屋

    Invasive:侵略的

    Pathologist:病理學家

    Seedling:種子

    Infest:感染

    Cedar:雪松

    Pecan:美洲山核桃

    Hickory:山核桃

    Blackberry:黑莓

    Sassafras:檫樹

    Tricothecene:（化學術語）單端孢霉烯

    Precipitously:陡然地

    注釋：

    短語Give somebody the heave-ho的意思是"與某人斷絕關系";"解雇某人".