A scientist revived a zombie virus that had been frozen for over 48,000 years

Scientists have revived five families virus They were found frozen in permafrost belonging Arctic for 48,500 years.

These samples were taken from an underground lake at a depth of 16 meters from the surface. The youngest of them date back to 27,000 years old and were found in the stomach of a woolly mammoth.

environment of change

He permafrost it covers a fifth of the northern hemisphere and has supported the arctic tundra and boreal forests of Alaska, Canada, and Russia for millennia. It serves as a kind of time capsule that preserves, in addition to virus the ancient, mummified remains of several extinct animals that scientists have been able to unearth and study in recent years, including two cubs of a cave lion and a woolly rhinoceros.

Reason for which permafrost This is a good preservative not only because of the cold; but it is also an anoxic environment into which no light can penetrate. But current temperatures Arctic they are warming four times faster than the rest of the planet, weakening the top layer in the region.

Jean-Michel Claverie, professor emeritus of medicine and genomics at the University of Aix-Marseille, analyzed soil samples from permafrost Siberian to see if there are still virus particles that are still contagious: you have found them.

Thanks to research published in the journal virusesClaveri and his team isolated several strains virus variety of antiques. Of the five families, the oldest was 48,500 years old, according to soil radiocarbon records.

This family, despite its age, can still infect unicellular amoebae.

anxiety

Interestingly, although many articles attempt to indicate that this activity does not create problems for life, in this case, the principal investigator determines that he is really worried that this discovery is taken lightly.

He fears that people will perceive his research as a scientific curiosity and miss the possibility that the ancients virus re-emerge as a serious threat to public health.

“We see traces of many, many, many others virus”, he added. “So we know they’re out there. We don’t know for sure if they’re alive. But our reasoning is that if the amoeba viruses are still alive, there’s no reason why others virus do not remain alive and are able to infect their carriers.

Scientists do not know how long these virus whether they can remain infectious after exposure to current conditions, or how likely the virus is to find a suitable host.

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