广州华南师范大学(分数线,专业设置)的研究人员对这种顽强昆虫的基因组进行了测序，并把研究成果发表在了上周的《自然通讯》(Nature Communications)上。

They found that the groups of genes related to the immune system, sensory perception, detoxification, and growth and reproduction were all enlarged, helping to explain how cockroaches are able to live in so many different environments — and why it’s so hard to kill them.

他们发现，蟑螂有关免疫系统、感官知觉、解毒、生长和繁殖的基因组十分庞大，这解释了它们为何可以存活于各种各样的环境中——以及为何难以被杀死。

“It’s a tiny pest, but has very strong vitality,” Sheng Li, the lead author of the paper and entomology professor, told the New York Times.

昆虫学家、论文的第一作者李胜在接受《纽约时报》(New York Times)采访时表示：“这种昆虫很小，却有很强的生命力。”

Since sequencing the first human genome, which took more than a decade and nearly $2.7 billion, medical researchers have found ways to make organisms resistant to disease. Also, CRISPR technology has moved the medical field toward cheap and and easy DNA editing.

自花费十余年时间、耗资近27亿美元对人类基因组首次测序以来，医学研究人员就找到了赋予生物体抗病能力的途径。此外，CRISPR(规律成簇的间隔短回文重复)技术也推动着医疗领域向廉价和简便的DNA编辑方面发展。

Scientists are looking to species like the American cockroach to learn about how traits that make them incredible adapters and stubborn survivalists are encoded in their DNA. Compared to other insects, the American cockroach genome is larger than any known genome sequence except locusts.