“唯一表达合胞体蛋白的地方是胎盘，”海德曼博士说，为了弄清楚它的功能，他及其同事在老鼠上沉默了该基因。

"The only place it's expressed is in the placenta," Dr. Heidmann said. To understand its function, he and his colleagues disabled the gene in mice.

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但我们今天使用的合胞体蛋白基因可能实际上已取代了最初病毒传给第一个胎生哺乳动物的基因。

But the syncytin genes we use today may have actually replaced an ancestral one that a virus bequeathed to the very first placental mammals.

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没有合胞体蛋白，老鼠的胎盘畸形生长，胚胎死亡。

Without syncytin, mice developed deformed placentas, and their embryos died.

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