Harianjogja.com, JAKARTA – Scientists discovered a previously unknown virus from 15,000 years ago in ice samples taken from glaciers in the Tibetan plateau.
According to a study published last week in the journal Microbiome, the virus is unlike any virus that scientists have cataloged before.
Launch CNN, Monday (26/7/2021), a team including climate scientists and microbiologists from Ohio State University retrieved two ice cores from the top of the Guliya ice sheet, at 22,000 feet above sea level, in western China in 2015.
The study’s lead author and microbiologist Zhiping Zhong said the 1,071-foot-deep ice core was then cut into sections three feet long and four inches in diameter.
The team then analyzed the ice and found 33 viruses. 28 of them were previously unknown to science and survived because they were frozen.
According to research, the virus may have come from soil or plants, not humans or animals, and will adapt to conditions. The researchers told CNN that the virus would not be harmful to humans.
Ice captures the contents of the atmosphere through time, including viruses and microbes, according to the study.
Relatively little is known about viruses in glaciers, but this area is growing in importance as ice around the world melts due to climate change.
Study co-author Lonnie Thompson, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State and senior research scientist at the Byrd Polar Research Center, said the COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of the importance of learning about microbial communities.
The method used in the study, according to Matthew Sullivan, professor of microbiology at Ohio State and director of the Center of Microbiome Science, allows scientists to assess the evolutionary rate of viruses present in different layers of the ice core.
It could also be useful in the search for life on Mars, for example.
“Once you develop that new technology, it can help you answer questions in other very difficult environments,” Sullivan said.
Source: JIBI/Bisnis.com
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