摘要：(Science,October 12,2024)-Showerheads and toothbrushes are teeming with never-before-seen viruses, researchers have found.

(Science, October 12,2024)-Showerheads and toothbrushes are teeming with never-before-seen viruses, researchers have found.

研究人员发现，淋浴喷头和牙刷上充满了前所未见的病毒。

The scientists made the discovery after studying samples collected from 96 showerheads and 34 toothbrushes from bathrooms in the United States.These samples contained 614 viruses, many of which are likely new to science.

科学家们在研究了从美国浴室中的96个淋浴头和34把牙刷中收集的样本后，做出了这一发现。

这些样本中含有614种病毒，其中许多可能是科学界的新发现。

Although the idea of viruses on your toothbrush may trigger heebie-jeebies, this discovery isn't a cause for concern, the team said. The viruses are bacteriophages, or "phages," which infect bacterial cells, rather than humans.What's more, these newfound viruses could be useful for developing treatments against antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

尽管牙刷上有病毒的想法可能会让人感到不安，但研究团队表示，这一发现并不值得担忧。这些病毒是噬菌体，或称为“噬菌体”，它们感染细菌细胞，而不是人类。此外，这些新发现的病毒可能有助于开发针对抗生素耐药超级细菌的治疗方法。

Scientists are working to develop "phage therapies" that use viruses to supplement or replace traditional antibiotics, beating back the defenses of dangerous bacteria. These new findings, published Oct. 9 in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes, could provide more potential options for future phage therapies.

科学家们正在努力开发“噬菌体疗法”，利用病毒来补充或替代传统抗生素，从而击退危险细菌的防御。这些新发现于10月9日发表在《微生物组前沿》杂志上，可能为未来的噬菌体疗法提供更多潜在选择。

The number of viruses that we found is absolutely wild,study lead author Erica Hartmann, a professor of microbiology at Northwestern University, said in a statement.We found many viruses that we know very little about and many others that we have never seen before,she said.

我们发现的病毒数量绝对惊人，该研究的主要作者、西北大学微生物学教授埃丽卡·哈特曼在一份声明中表示。我们发现了很多我们知之甚少的病毒，还有很多我们从未见过的病毒，她说。

It's amazing how much untapped biodiversity is all around us. And you don't even have to go far to find it; it's right under our noses.Scientists previously estimated that there are likely about 1 trillion species of microbes on our planet, 99.9% of which remain undiscovered.

令人惊讶的是，我们周围有多少未被开发的生物多样性。而且你甚至不需要走远就能找到它；它就在我们眼皮底下。科学家们此前估计，地球上可能存在大约1万亿种微生物，其中99.9%尚未被发现。

This blew away previous estimates suggesting that the number of microbial species was in the millions, roughly in line with the number of insect species.Among those many microbes are the viruses that infect them, and in turn, alter the activity of their cells.

这一估计大大超过了之前认为微生物物种数量在数百万左右的估计，大致与昆虫物种数量相当。在这些众多的微生物中，存在着感染它们的病毒，这些病毒反过来又改变了它们细胞的活动。

To investigate the hidden universe of microbial life, scientists have plumbed exotic locations, like the deep ocean, but the researchers behind the new study looked closer to home, swabbing showerheads and toothbrushes from the houses of study volunteers. After examining the DNA in these samples, the scientists found the samples collectively contained more than 600 different viruses, yet each individual sample looked very different from the next.

为了探索微生物生命的隐藏宇宙，科学家们已经探索了深海等异域地点，但这项新研究背后的研究人员则更关注家中，从研究志愿者的家中采集了淋浴头和牙刷的样本。在分析了这些样本中的DNA后，科学家们发现这些样本总共包含了600多种不同的病毒，但每个单独的样本看起来都与其他样本非常不同。

We saw basically no overlap in virus types between showerheads and toothbrushes,Hartmann said.We also saw very little overlap between any two samples at all.Each showerhead and each toothbrush is like its own little island.

我们基本上没有看到淋浴喷头和牙刷之间病毒类型的重叠，哈特曼说。我们也没有看到任何两个样本之间有重叠。每个淋浴喷头和每把牙刷都像是一个独立的小岛。

Viruses known as mycobacteriophages were the most prevalent type found in the samples. These phages infect and kill mycobacteria, a broad group of microbes that includes some disease-causing germs — for example, those that cause chronic lung infections, leprosy and tuberculosis.We could envision taking these mycobacteriophages and using them as a way to clean pathogens out of your plumbing system,” Hartmann said.

被称为分枝杆菌噬菌体的病毒是在样本中发现的最普遍的类型。这些噬菌体感染并杀死分枝杆菌，分枝杆菌是一个广泛的微生物群，包括一些致病细菌——例如，那些引起慢性肺部感染、麻风病和结核病的细菌。“我们可以设想利用这些分枝杆菌噬菌体作为一种方法，来清除你管道系统中的病原体，”哈特曼说。

By studying these newfound viruses further, the researchers also hope to harness them to make new antibacterial drugs. In the meantime, they said that people shouldn't fret about the microscopic beasties found in our bathrooms.Microbes are everywhere, and the vast majority of them will not make us sick,

通过进一步研究这些新发现的病毒，研究人员还希望利用它们制造新的抗菌药物。与此同时，他们表示人们不必担心在浴室中发现这些微小的生物。微生物无处不在，其中绝大多数不会让我们生病， Hartmann said. 哈特曼说。

来源：文化智慧谷