Giant viruses found in the Greenland ice sheet

A mysterious giant virus has been discovered in the snow and ice sheet of Greenland. Algae have also been identified there, meaning this is the first time this has been done Viruses – which we know relatively little about – were found in such an environment. In fact, by polluting microalgae, they are considered giants Viruses They may act as a kind of “secret weapon” to reduce ice melting.

Viruses are not visible to the naked eye, according to a related post IFL Science, but next to regular viruses, which are 20-200 nanometers in size, they are relatively huge. Giant viruses can grow up to 2.5 micrometers, or 2,500 nanometers, making them up to 125 times larger than regular viruses and larger than most bacteria. They also have huge genomes containing about 2.5 million base pairs.

Previously, giant viruses have been found in all types of environments, including the sea, soil and even humans. However, this latest discovery represents the first time ice and snow have been found infested with algae. The team behind this discovery believes that these viruses could play an important role in regulating algae growth and thus maintaining ice.

What role do viruses play in maintaining ice?

When Arctic algae grow in the spring, it darkens large areas of the ice sheet, reducing its ability to reflect sunlight and thus accelerating its melting. That’s bad for the environment, which is why giant viruses recently discovered in Greenland would be a boon for ice protection, if they can serve as a natural control for algae, as researchers suspect.

“We don’t know a lot about viruses, but I think they could be useful as a way to mitigate ice melt caused by algae growth,” said Laura Perini from the Department of Environmental Sciences at Aarhus University. “We don’t yet know how effective it is, but by investigating it further, we hope to answer some of these questions.”

What research has shown about viruses in Greenland

The team collected samples from a variety of snow and ice habitats on the Greenland ice sheet before analyzing them for DNA and looking for specific genes for markers of the giant viruses. In almost all samples, according to the relevant study published in Microbiomefound sequences matching known giant viruses.

To make sure their findings came from active viruses and not long-dead microbes, the researchers also extracted messenger RNA, or mRNA — a single molecule that contains instructions from DNA that instructs cells to make protein — from the samples. “In the total mRNA sequences from the samples, we found the same marks as in the total DNA, so we know they were transcribed,” explained Laura Perini, one of the authors of the related study, adding: “This means the viruses are alive and active on ice.” .

Ordinary viruses are unable to transcribe double-stranded DNA into single-stranded mRNA. Instead, they have free strands of RNA in their cells, which are activated when the virus infects its host and takes advantage of its machinery. However, giant viruses are different in that they are able to repair, replicate, and translate DNA without the help of a host — although we’re not sure why this is.

However, when it comes to giant viruses, there are many other unknowns. So what do these mysterious germs affect, for example? “Some of them may infect protozoa, while others attack snow algae, we can’t be sure yet,” Laura Perini noted. However, as more research is done, she hopes we can better understand these pathogens and their potential role in protecting the ice from accelerated melting.