Reviving a frozen ‘zombie’ virus, scientists in France have warned of the potential danger of microbes from frozen soil. It has been reported CNN.
Permafrost covers one-fifth of the Northern Hemisphere, including parts of Alaska, Canada, and Russia. The combination of cold, lack of oxygen and light ensures that the remains of living organisms are well preserved in the permafrost. It can be compared to a “time capsule” that stores old viruses. The rate of increase in daily temperatures in the Arctic is four times greater than in the rest of the planet. This leads to the thawing of permafrost and the release of old viruses from it.
Previously, scientists from the University of Aix-Marseille in France discovered giant viruses in frozen soil, which they returned the ability to infect amoebae. The oldest of them was 48.5 thousand years old and the youngest 27 thousand years old. Laboratory head Jean-Michel Claverie’s efforts to find viruses in frozen soil were partly inspired by Russian scientists who reanimated a wild flower from 30,000-year-old seed tissue found in a squirrel’s nest in 2012.
Biologists do not ignore the fact that there are viruses in frozen soil that can infect humans. As noted by CNN, traces of viruses and bacteria that can infect humans have been found in the frozen soil. A lung sample taken from the body of a woman in Alaska in 1997 contained the flu strain responsible for the 1918 epidemic.
Additionally, an anthrax epidemic that occurred in Siberia between July and August 2016 was also associated with melting permafrost during an exceptionally hot summer. This allowed discussion Bacillus anthracis rises to the surface from ancient graves or animal carcasses. The epidemic affected dozens of people and more than two thousand reindeer.
All of this highlights the importance of curbing global climate change, studying permafrost and the viruses and bacteria embedded in it.