The awakening of 50,000-year-old zombie viruses: A disturbing scientific breakthrough

Like the planet to heat up and the glaciers They melt and release all kinds of substances that have been frozen for centuries.

This includes a number of microbes that lay dormant for hundreds of thousands of years.

To study “extinct” microbes, scientists have revived a number of them “zombie viruses” Burials have been found in Siberia, including one believed to be approximately 50,000 years old.

Record the age of a frozen virus coming back to life and remaining able to infect other living things.

The team behind the work is led by microbiologist Jean-Marie Alembeck of French National Center for Scientific ResearchHe says that these reintroduced viruses could pose a potentially significant threat to public health, and further study should be conducted to assess the risks of these infectious agents.

A quarter of it Northern Hemisphere lies beneath the permafrost,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

“Because of global warming, irreversible melting of glaciers is emerging organic matter that have been frozen for up to a million years.”

amoeba virus 48,500 years It’s actually one of 13 described in a new prepublication study, and nine of them are believed to be tens of thousands of years old.

The researchers found that each virus was genome-wide different from all other known viruses.

While the record-breaking virus was found under a lake, other mining sites included mammoth wool and wolf intestines Siberia – They are all buried in glaciers in Siberia.

using live Single-cell cultures of amoebaThe team showed that viruses still have the potential to be infectious pathogens.

New virus – as with SARS-CoV-2– They may be more dangerous to public health, especially as the Arctic is getting more populated.

“It will be much better Destroyer In the case of plant, animal or human diseases caused by the revival of … an unknown ancient virus, the researchers wrote.

It should be noted that in “Resuscitation” virus He called it Pandoravirus yedoma, which relates to its size and the type of permafrost it was found in. Researchers believe there are many more viruses to be found, beyond those that only target amoebae.

Many of the viruses that will be released with the thaw will be completely unknown to us – and it remains to be seen how contagious they will be once exposed to light, the heat and oxygen in the external environment.