As global warming accelerates the melting of glaciers, unknown ‘ancient viruses’ that have been trapped in glaciers for tens of thousands of years are emerging one after another.
According to CNN’s report on the 8th (hereafter referred to as local media), Professor Emeritus Jean Michel Claverie, an expert in medicine and genomics at Aix-Marseille Medical University, told CNN, “We tested soil samples taken from Siberian permafrost, and found virus particles in them. found The virus particle still contained ‘infectiousness’,” he said. “We looked for what is called a ‘zombie virus’ (meaning a pathogen that does not die for tens of thousands of years), and actually found it.”
In 2015, Professor Claveri’s research team found a 30,000-year-old virus that was dormant in the Siberian permafrost and named it ‘Mollivirus sibericum’. This virus was large enough to be called a ‘giant virus’ and possessed 500 genes. This is a very large number compared to the 9 genes of the AIDS virus (HIV).
The virus boasted of a ‘kiyeom’ that infects and explodes an amoeba when it is given as bait. It has been proven that it is still infectious even after being dormant in the cold and dark ground for 30,000 years.
In addition, the research team found a total of five new virus families in the permafrost, and the oldest of them was confirmed to be about 48,500 years old according to soil radiocarbon dating.
“The virus was found in a soil sample taken from a depth of 16 meters in an icy lake in the Arctic,” said Dr. Claverie. It appears to be a variant of an ancient virus that targeted amoeba.”
“The fact that amoeba-infecting viruses are still infectious after a long period of time suggests a potentially larger problem,” he said. “I see it,” he explained.
“We know that ancient viruses are out there[in the permafrost]but we can’t be sure that they are still alive,” he said. , then the viruses will be able to infect their own hosts.”
15,000 to 30,000 years ago virus found in glacial ice and permafrost
This is not the first time that there are voices of concern that an ancient virus that was dormant in glaciers or ice could come out of the world along with glaciers due to climate change.
In 2021, researchers at Ohio State University in the United States found 33 types of viruses in ice samples taken from the Gulliya Glacier in Tibet, China. Twenty-eight of these were hitherto unknown and new, and some were estimated to be 15,000 years old.
Experts are concerned about the possibility that ancient viruses, which are believed to be buried in large quantities in the permafrost, will naturally leak out as the glacier melts.
In fact, anthrax that occurred in Siberia in 2016 resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 reindeer and the hospitalization of 96 people. did.
Viruses frozen with glaciers can cause similar problems. Experts point out that the ‘risk’ contained in the ice is real, and as ice melting increases globally, so too does the risk from the release of pathogenic microbes.
“If there is a virus hidden in the permafrost that has not been touched by humans for thousands of years, our immune system may not be able to defend it sufficiently,” Claverie warned.
Dr. Briita Evengard, a biologist at Umeå University in Sweden, said: “As the permafrost melts, we need to be on the lookout for potential virus posed risks, but we need to avoid alarms that cause unnecessary concern.”
Reporter Song Hyeon-seo [email protected]