近日，法国科学家通过基因组测序首次证实，此前已引起热议的结合德尔塔和奥密克戎毒株的新冠病毒“德尔塔克戎”（deltacron）变体确实存在，目前，美国和欧洲都报告了相关病例。

　　What is the Deltacronvariantof Covid and where has it been found?

　　The Guardian

　　◐What is Deltacron? 什么是德尔塔克戎（Deltacron）？

　　As theportmanteausuggests,Deltacronis a Covid variant that contains elements ofDeltaandOmicron– in other words, it contains genes from both variants, making it what is known as arecombinantvirus.

　　正如这个词所指，德尔塔克戎是一种包含德尔塔（Delta）和奥密克戎（Omicron）的新冠病毒变异株--换句话说，它包含两种毒株的基因，而成为所谓的重组病毒。

　　variant

　　表示“变体；变种”，英文解释为“Avariantof a particular thing is something that has a different form from that thing, although it is related to it.”举个🌰：

　　The quagga wasa strikingly beautiful variantof the zebra.

　　白氏斑马是一种极其美丽的斑马变种。

　　portmanteau

　　portmanteau /pɔːtˈmæntəʊ/ 表示“混成词”（合音词、紧缩词、合并词，混合词）指由最少两个词语或词语的一部分结合而成的词语或词素，该新词语的意义和读音集组成部分之成。一般而言，混成词是新词。举个🌰：breakfast + lunch 构成了brunch早午餐。motel汽车旅馆（motor + hotel）；smog雾霾（smoke + fog）。

　　📍类似的也叫：Blend，英文解释为：a word formed by joining together the beginning and the end of two other words.

　　recombinant

　　recombinant /riːˈkɒm.bɪ.nənt/ 表示“（基因材料）重组的”，英文解释为“produced by combining genetic material from different places”举个🌰：

　　Researchers have launched a vaccine trial, using new formulas created withrecombinantDNA technology.

　　研究者们启动了一项疫苗测试，采用的根据重组DNA技术研制的新配方。

　　“These recombinantsarisewhen more than one variant infects andreplicatesin the same person, in the same cells,” says Prof Lawrence Young, avirologistat the University of Warwick. “Deltacron is a product of both the Delta and Omicron variantscirculatingin the same population.”

　　华威大学（University of Warwick）的病毒学家劳伦斯·杨（Lawrence Young）教授说：“当一个以上的变体在同一个人、同一个细胞中感染和复制时，就会出现这些重组体。德尔塔克戎是在同一人群中传播的德尔塔和奥密克戎毒株的产物。”

　　arise

　　表示“发生；产生；出现”，英文解释为“to happen”举个🌰：

　　Should the opportunityarise, I'd love to go to China.

　　要是有机会的话，我很想去中国。

　　replicate

　　表示“使复现；重复；复制”，英文解释为“to make or do something again in exactly the same way”举个🌰：

　　Researchers tried many times toreplicatethe original experiment.

　　研究者们作了很多次努力，试图重复这一实验。

　　virologist

　　virologist 表示“病毒学家，病毒学专家”，英文解释为“a specialist in virology”举个🌰：

　　The world-leadingvirologisthas joined the new EU COVID-19 advisory team.

　　世界顶尖的病毒学家加入了欧盟新的COVID-19顾问团队。

　　📍virology：the branch of medicine concerned with the study of viruses and the diseases they cause 病毒学

　　📍virus：A virus is a kind of germ that can cause disease. 病毒

　　circulate

　　circulate有“（使）循环；（使）流通；（使）传递；（使）散布”的含义（if a story, an idea, information, etc. circulates or if you circulate it, it spreads or it is passed from one person to another），举个🌰：

　　Rumours began to circulateabout his financial problems.

　　有关他财务困难的谣言开始流传开来。

　　🎬电影《拉瑞·克劳》（Larry Crowne）中的台词提到：If gossip of this nature were tocirculate, 如果这种性质的八卦流传开来，

　　This week,Gisaid, a global community of scientists that shares virus information, posted that the firstsolidevidence for this variant had been shared by the Pasteur Institute in France.

　　本周，分享病毒信息的全球科学家社区Gisaid发布消息称，法国巴斯德研究所已经分享了这一变体的首个确凿证据。

　　solid

　　表示“确定的；扎实的；可信赖的”，英文解释为“certain or safe; of a good standard; giving confidence or support”举个🌰：

　　This providedsolid evidencethat he committed the crime.

　　这提供了确凿证据，证明他犯了罪。

　　◐Where has this variant been found? 在哪里发现了这个变体？

　　Gisaidsays the variant has been identified in several regions of France and appears to have been circulating since the start of the year. “Genomeswith a similarprofilehave been also identified in Denmark and the Netherlands,”Gisaidsays.

　　Gisaid的消息称，该变体已在法国的几个地区被发现，并且似乎自今年年初以来一直在传播。“在丹麦和荷兰也发现了具有类似特征的基因组。”

　　genome

　　genome /ˈdʒiː.noʊm/ 表示“基因组，染色体组”，英文解释为“the complete set of genetic material of a human, animal, plant, or other living thing”

　　profile

　　profile一词经常出现，

　　1）表示“（某物的）外形，轮廓；（人、团体或组织的）简介，概况”，英文解释为“a description of sb/sth that gives useful information / the edge or outline of sth that you see against a background；A profile of someone is a short article or programme in which their life and character are described.”举个🌰：

　　A newspaper publishedcomparative profilesof the candidates' wives.

　　一份报纸刊登了候选人妻子们的对比简介。

　　2）表示“关注度”，英文解释为“If someone hasa high profile, people notice them and what they do. If you keep a low profile, you avoid doing things that will make people notice you.”常用：a high profile 惹人注目/关注；高姿态，a low profile 不惹人注目，低姿态；如：a move that would give Egypta much higher profilein the upcoming peace talks 会给埃及在即将到来的和平谈判中高关注度的一个行动。

　　📍顺便插一句，如果你把微信语言设置成英文，你就会发现微信官方把头像处理成：Profile Photo，上面的“My Profile”对应的中文则是“个人信息”。

　　There have also been reports of Deltacron being detected in the US, and about 30 cases have been detected in the UK, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).The i newspapersaid the first cases of person-to-persontransmissionof Deltacron in the UK were expected to beconfirmedthis week.

　　据英国卫生安全局（UKHSA）称，美国也报告了检测到德尔塔克戎的病例，而在英国已经检测到大约30个病例。英文《i》报称，预计本周将确认英国的第一批德尔塔克戎人际传播病例。

　　transmission

　　表示“传递；传播”，英文解释为“the process of passing something from one person or place to another”如：the transmission of disease 疾病的传播。

　　confirm

　　表示“确定；证实；肯定”，英文解释为“to prove that a belief or an opinion that was previously not completely certain is true”举个🌰：

　　The smell of cigarette smokeconfirmedwhat he had suspected: there had been a party in his absence.

　　烟味证实了他的猜疑：他不在时这里举行过聚会。

　　Dr Etienne Simon-Loriereof the Institut Pasteurcautionedthat there could be several different recombinant viruses formed from Delta and Omicron.

　　巴斯德研究所的艾蒂安·西蒙-洛里耶（Etienne Simon-Loriere）博士警告说，可能有几种不同的重组病毒由德尔塔和奥密克戎形成。

　　caution

　　作动词，表示“告诫；提醒”，英文解释为“to warn someone”举个🌰：

　　The newspapercautionedits readers against buying shares without getting good advice first.

　　报纸告诫读者事先没有获得好的建议，不要购买股票。

　　“The one we see in France and in Denmark/Netherlands look super similar and might be the same recombinant (with the same parental viruses),” he said. But, he added, the possible Delta-Omicron recombinants reported in countries including the UK andUS appear to combine different pieces of their parental viruses, and therefore differ to the Deltacron seen in France.

　　他说：“我们在法国和丹麦/荷兰看到的那个看起来超级相似，可能是同一个重组体（有相同的亲代病毒）。”但是，他补充说，包括英国和美国在内的国家报告的可能的德尔塔-奥密克戎重组体似乎结合了其亲代病毒的不同部分，因此与在法国看到的德尔塔克戎变体不同。

　　“We might need to find a different name to indicate these recombinant, or start adding a number,” he said.

　　他说：“我们可能需要用不同的名字来表示这些重组体，或者开始添加一个数字。”

　　◐ How worried should we be? 我们应该保持怎样的心态呢？

　　Experts have been quick tostressthat recombinant variants arenot uncommon, and that Deltacron is not the first and will not be the last to occur for Covid.

　　专家们迅速强调，重组变体并不罕见，德尔塔克戎不是第一个，也不会是最后一个新冠病毒的变异体。

　　stress

　　表示“强调，着重”，英文解释为“to give emphasis or special importance to something”举个🌰：

　　He is careful tostress (that)the laboratory's safety standards are the best in the country.

　　他谨慎地强调实验室的安全标准是全国最高的。

　　“This happens whenever we are in theswitchoverperiod from onedominantvariant to another, and is usually a scientific curiosity but not much more than that,” saysDr Jeffrey Barrett, who formerly led the Covid-19genomics initiativeat the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

　　“每当我们处于从一种优势毒株到另一种优势毒株的转换期时，就会发生这种情况，通常是一种科学上的好奇心，但也不过如此，”曾在韦尔科姆基金会桑格研究所领导新冠基因组计划的杰弗里·巴雷特（Jeffrey Barrett）博士说。

　　switchover

　　表示“转换，转变；彻底改变”，英文解释为“a change from using or doing one thing to another”举个🌰：

　　Theswitchoverto daylight saving time represents a one percent saving of electricity annually.

　　使用夏时制后，每年的电力使用量节省了百分之一。

　　dominant

　　1）表示“首要的；占支配地位的；占优势的；显著的”，英文解释为“more important, powerful or noticeable than other things”举个🌰：

　　The firm has achieveda dominant positionin the world market.

　　这家公司在国际市场上占有举足轻重的地位。

　　2）表示“（基因）显性的，优势的”，英文解释为“adominantgenecauses a person to have a particular physical characteristic, for example brown eyes, even if only one of their parents has passed on this  gene”。

　　🎬电影《王牌特工：特工学院》（Kingsman: The Secret Service）中的台词提到：but a Kingsman wears it on which ever hand happens to be dominant.但王牌特工都戴在惯用手上。