1、How can plant genetics contribute to the related objectives of achieving sustainable food production with a reduced environmental impact and at the same time provide a livelihood for rural communities in the face of reduced production subsidies?
[解析]该句的主要结构是“How can plant genetics contribute to …… and at the same time provide ……?”并列分句中各成分的载荷不算太严重,因此宜按原句进行翻译。
2、Root elongation may be inhibited by the levels of auxin required to initiate roots, and the use of IAA, which rapidly breaks down in cultured tissues, is a useful way of overcoming this problem without having to provide a second rooting medium.
2、Amylase, which starts at the non-reducing ends of the outer chains of starch and proceeds by gradual removal of maltose units, and de-branching enzyme (R-enzyme), which hydrolyzes the α-1-6-linkages of starch, were detected in these plants.
[解析]该句主句结构“Amylase, ……, and de-branching enzyme (R-enzyme), ……, were detected in these plants.”,“Amylase”和“de-branching enzyme (R-enzyme)”用两个定语从句修饰。宜先译主句,然后再分译两个定语从句。
3、Current concerns focus on the growth of genetically engineered plants as an intrusion on nature that may have unknown and irreversible consequences, and on the amassing of unprecedented power by corporations through ownership and control of the supply of food from seed to plate.
[解析]该句的理解的关键是要抓住主句的结构“Current concerns focus on ……, and on ……”,同时不要将第二个“on”的搭配(intrusion on)与主句中第一个和第三个“on”的搭配(focus on)混淆。翻译时,为了避免宾语的修补词过长,可用“目前公众对转基因植物的关注集中在这两点”来总述,然后用“一方面……;另一方面……”来分述,这样处理更符合汉语习惯。
4、With the advent of DNA-based genetic markers in the late 1970's, the situation changed and researchers could, for the first time, begin to identify large numbers of markers dispersed throughout the genetic material of any species of interest and use the markers to detect associations with traits of interest, thus allowing MAS to finally become a reality.
5、Therefore, if the full potential of enzymes is to be exploited cheap efficient methods of extracting and purifying enzymes will have to be discovered which take into account the low concentrations of enzymes that are typically found in the cells, which are usually less than 1% (w/w).
[解析]该句前面为If引导条件状语从句“if the full potential of enzymes is to be exploited”,主句为“cheap efficient methods of extracting and purifying enzymes will have to be discovered”,之后为“methods”的定语从句,定语从句中又嵌套一个“the low concentrations”的定语从句。翻译时宜将“methods”定语从句译成分句。
6、This led to a whole new field of academic research, including the milestone paper by Paterson and co-workers in 1988 which showed, given the availability of large numbers of genetic markers for their species of interest (tomato), how the effects and location of marker-linked genes impacting a number of quantitative traits (fruit traits in their case) could be estimated, using an approach that could be applied to dissect the genetic make-up of any physiological, morphological and behavioural trait in plants and animals.
[解析]该句的主句结构为“This led to a whole new field of academic research”,后面有一个现在分词结构“including the milestone paper by Paterson and co-workers in 1988”之后为“the milestone paper”的长定语从句。在翻译时,宜将该定语从句分译成句,但要将表示方法手段的现在分词结构“using an approach that could be applied to dissect the genetic make-up of any physiological, morphological and behavioural trait in plants and animals”前置译出,这样更符合汉语的表达习惯。
7、Combining the best genes in one plant is a long and difficult process, especially as traditional plant breeding has been limited to artificially crossing plants within the same species or with closely related species to bring different genes together.
8、This technology provides the means for identifying and isolating genes controlling specific characteristics in one kind of organism, and for moving copies of those genes into another quite different organism, which will then also have those characteristics.
[解析]此句的主句结构为“This technology provides the means for ……, and for ……”,另外还有一个修饰“another quite different organism”的定语从句“which will then also have those characteristics”。该句在翻译处理时,可以按原英语句子语序译出,也可先总述主句,然后再分述“两种方法”。
9、This powerful tool enables plant breeders to do what they have always done ― generate more useful and productive crop varieties containing new combinations of genes ― but it expands the possibilities beyond the limitations imposed by traditional cross-pollination and selection techniques.