广播电视英语短句 第 280 课：马铃薯基因-4

In a separate development, another team reported completing a genome of the organism responsible for late blight. 在另一组研究中，一个研究团队报告称完成了对（马铃薯）晚疫病的基因组测定。

That disease can infect potatoes, tomatoes and some other plants. 这种疾病会使马铃薯、番茄和其它的一些植物受到感染。

It causes several billion dollars a year in agricultural losses around the world. 每年全世界因这种疾病造成数亿美元的损失。

But late blight was also the cause of the potato famine in Ireland in the middle of the eighteen hundreds. 晚疫病是造成19十八世纪中叶马铃薯大减产的原因。

Potato shortages caused at least one million deaths and a wave of Irish immigration to America. 马铃薯不足导致至少100万人死亡，还造成爱尔兰人移居美洲的大潮。