The Resurrection of an ancient virus
Scientists have revived an ancient virus that has been sleeping in the Siberian permafrost for 30 thousand years
The Mollivirus sibericum virus (which scientists attribute to the so-called giant viruses) went into a frozen state 30 thousand years ago. And as happens with deep freezing, his DNA remained intact. French and Russian researchers who are studying a new type of virus with more than 500 genes were even able to revive it for a short time.The Siberian find is a joy for researchers, but a much greater threat to humanity.
Scientists themselves are aware of the danger and warn: active human activity in permafrost areas is fraught with the "thawing" of ancient, unknown to mankind diseases. The awakening of giant viruses is not a scenario of a fantastic horror movie, but an everyday reality.
Mollivirus sibericum ("Siberian soft virus") is the fourth giant virus found since 2003. Two of the four viruses were in the Arctic regions, during the search for minerals. Mollivirus was found, for example, in soil samples in northeastern Siberia.
The viruses found are called giant because of their size: the ancient infection has a diameter of more than 0.5 microns, that is, it is easily viewed through an optical microscope. And unlike ordinary viruses, giant viruses can easily be confused with bacteria.
Having revived the Mollivirus sibericum for a short time, scientists planted it in several amoebas, and then "put it to sleep" back. But in the case of a natural awakening, a pathogenic virus can take over a sensitive organism – and who knows what diseases will return to the modern world.
"There is a risk that one day we will wake up some viruses like smallpox, which was considered eradicated," warns Jean-Michel Clavry, professor of medicine at the University of Aix–Marseille (in a press release Un nouveau virus géant découvert dans le permafrost sibérien on the website of the National Center for Scientific Research of France, CNRS – VM). In his opinion, any reconnaissance work in the Arctic regions should be carried out, observing precautionary measures. The Arctic is of increasing interest – access to its resources is becoming much easier due to climate change. But the professor is sure that it is possible to switch to industrial mining of minerals only after all the necessary soil studies have been carried out.
Article by Legendre et al. In-depth study of Mollivirus sibericum, a new 30,000-y-old giant virus infecting Acanthamoeba published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – VM.
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09.09.2015