女人偏爱与父亲体味接近的男人

　　Moreover, the women showed no preference for odors from men with the same gene types as their mothers, but did show a preference for odors from men who shared genes they inherited from their fathers.

　　受试女士不喜欢与自己母亲有相同基因类型的男士气味，但却偏爱具有与她们从父亲身上遗传而得基因的男人气味。

　　Experts believe there are two major reasons for preferring a mate with different genes than your own. The first is that parents with more diverse MHC genes will give rise to offspring with better immune systems, and the second is that by avoiding mates who have very similar MHC types, you also avoid inbreeding.

　　专家认为，人类爱选与自己基因相异的人为配偶的主要原因有两点，一是具有较大差异MHC基因的父母生出的后代具有较好的免疫系统，其次是避免配偶有非常相似的MHC基因型，这样可以避免近亲繁殖。

　　In fact, previous studies have shown that married people tend to have different types of genes than their spouse.

　　事实上，以前的研究也表明已婚的人趋向于与配偶有不同的基因。

　　At the same time, however, the propensity to choose someone with slightly similar genes can also avoid the problem of outbreeding--the mixing of genes that are too different.

　　然而，与此同时，选择稍微相似基因的人为配偶也能避免远系繁殖——差异太大的基因组合问题。

　　"The best is in the middle range and no one knew that before," said Martha McClintock, co-author of the study and a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago，"Everybody always says different is better, well you get different, different, different, and then it becomes a point where it's no longer better."

　　该项研究的合作者，芝加哥大学的心理学教授Martha McClintock说：“适度遗传差异是最好的，以前没有人知道这个道理。人人都说有差异比较好，你可能得到这样那样的遗传差异，然后，差异大到某一程度时就不再好了。”

　　Potts cautions that choosing an odor from within a box may not represent what actually happens in the real world when women are attracted to their mates.

　　Potts提醒说，从盒子中选闻气味不能代表现实生活中女性被男子身上散发气味所吸引的实际过程。

　　"It's the wrong emphasis to say that this means that they're going to prefer MHC similar males when it comes to mating," said Potts. "There is other social context."

　　Potts说：“以此证明女性喜欢选择MHC基因相似的男人做配偶是错的，因为选择配偶还有其它的社会内容。”

　　"That is one of the molecular missing links," said Potts. "We don't know exactly what the odorants are."

　　Potts说: “这儿有一个分子连接错位，但我们不知道专管发出味道的遗传基因的确切位置。”

　　Potts explains that one hypothesis is linked to the ability of MHC molecules to stick to very specific pieces of protein in cells. These MHC molecules and the proteins stuck to them are what is believed to be detected as an odor.

　　Potts解释说，一种假设是与MHC分子粘到细胞内特定蛋白质的能力有关，据称，就是这些MHC分子和粘在上面的蛋白质发出了可闻到的味道。

　　Whatever the mechanism, this study disproves the assumption that humans have a poorly developed sense of smell.

　　无论该研究的机理如何，该研究至少推翻了有关人类嗅觉发育不良的假设。

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