For more than 200 years,
200多年前
people have been making up all of these different breeds,
人们培育了这些不同种类的狗
and now we can just use them to study genetics.
现在我们可以用来研究基因遗传
If you looked in a population of humans,
在人类群体中
all the people in a country like the uk,
一个国家的所有的人 比如英国
you'd have quite a lot of genetic variation across them.
会有很多不同的基因变化
People would be quite different from one another.
人和人之间会有相当大的差异
But within a breed,
然而在一个品种的狗中
dogs are very similar to each other.
特别是那些有特定易患疾病的狗品种
Particular dog breeds are prone to certain diseases,
它们彼此非常相近
and this makes them incredibly useful to study.
这个特点非常有助于我们的研究
Today, the team are
今天测试团队要从拳师狗身上
taking blood samples from boxers,
抽取一些血样本
A breed that is susceptible
这种狗容易患上
to a fatal heart disease called cardiomyopathy.
一种叫做心肌梗塞的严重的心脏病
What happens is they have irregular heartbeat,
症状是它们的心律不齐
and it compromises blood flow in their body,
身体里血流不正常
so it can cause collapse
所以会引起突然衰竭
and also it can cause sudden cardiac death.
这样就导致心脏病猝死
It's an invisible disease that affects humans, too,
这种疾病也是一个会夺去人类生命的隐形杀手
causing sudden death in apparently healthy people.
导致外表看来很健康的人突然猝死
The DNA in boxers' blood could hold
拳师狗的血液里可能保存着
vital clues to the genetic causes of the disease.
这种疾病的重要线索