每日一翻：Steamy Smooches Share Batches of Bacteria

A passionate kiss shares much more than intimacy. A single 10-second smooch can transfer tens of millions of bacteria from one partner to the other. That’s the finding from a study in the journal Microbiome. [Remco Kort et al, Shaping the oral microbiota through intimate kissing]

一次充满激情的接吻互相传染的细菌比性行为要多得多。一次十秒钟的接吻足以把数以千万计的细菌从一方转移到另一方。这是《微生物学》杂志上的一项研究发现的。

More than 700 different bacteria are estimated to live in the human mouth. To find out how macking mixes microbes, Dutch scientists asked 21 couples to French kiss.

大约有700种不同的细菌寄生在人们的口腔里。为了查明细菌如何交叉混合，荷兰科学家让21对夫妇进行法式接吻。

Intimate partners already have more of the same bacteria in their mouths than do unrelated individuals, because of the couple’s shared habits and environment. But kissing really expedites the bacterial blending.

与不相关的个人之间相比较，夫妻之间因为共同的生活习惯和环境，他们口腔内已经有了更多同样的细菌。但是接吻真的会加快细菌融合。

As part of the study, one member of the couple consumed a probiotic yogurt drink loaded with certain bacteria. Saliva samples and tongue swabs revealed that after the couples puckered up, about 80 million bacteria from the drink moved mouth to mouth.

作为研究的一部分，夫妇中的一名成员喝一些含有某些细菌的益生菌酸奶饮料。唾液样本和舌苔标本揭示出夫妻接吻后，饮料中大约8000万的细菌从一人的嘴里传到了另一人的嘴里。

The salivary bug exchange was extensive but the work does not yet tell us why certain swapped bacteria either stuck around or were more transient. Answering that question could help with future medical interventions aimed at microbes.

唾液细菌交换是广泛的，但研究还没有告诉我们这些交换的细菌为什么会滞留或者瞬间消失。回答这个问题将有助于未来实施针对微生物的医疗干预措施。

What the research did show: although the bacteria in saliva were easily altered, bacteria living on tongues tended to stay put. Unlike certain frog-princes, those critters were less prone to change because of a mere kiss.

研究发现：尽管唾液中细菌容易发生改变，但是舌头上的细菌是不容易改变的。不像某些青蛙王子，仅仅因为一个接吻，这些生物的细菌是不会改变的。

—Dina Fine Maron