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Permafrost, or permanently frozen, in free translation, is a surface that remains below freezing temperatures throughout the year in the Arctic and in regions of other countries. Extreme weather such as Canada and Russia, as well as the state of Alaska in the United States. Ice preserves important information, especially in the area of microbiology, that can help reveal the climate context of other eras on the planet, as well as predictions about future climate change.
O global temperature rise it has led to the melting of areas that, until then, remained frozen most of the time. Although worrying, the scenario allows researchers to expand their studies in frozen regions. One of these surveys, led by scientists at Ohio State University in the United States, revealed virus who have spent the last 15,000 years frozen in the glacier region of Tibet, Asia.
The taxonomy of new viruses can be established using gene sharing analysis from viral sequences. According to the study, from genetic analysis, 33 types of virus were found, of which 28 are new. The results of study foram published no scientific journal Microbiome.
The analysis focused on viruses that infect bacteria, called bacteriophages. According to the study, the data found open the way for the development of new research in the field of viral communities present in glaciers.
“These methods and datasets may allow researchers to contextualize new findings and begin to incorporate ice microbes and their viruses into the context of climate changes past and present in geographically diverse regions around the world,” says the article.
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