Jakarta –
Global warming raises new concerns among scientists. They fear that the permafrost that has frozen for years will thaw and release the ancient viruses trapped within.
“This risk will definitely increase in the context of global warming, where permafrost melting will continue to increase, and more people will inhabit the Arctic,” said Jean-Michel Claverie, a computational biologist at the University of Aix-Marseille in France who studies ancient viruses. and exotic, quoted from CNN, Sunday (30/7/2023).
Indeed, the virus has been sealed in permafrost for thousands of years. But researchers at the European Commission’s Center for Joint Research found about three per cent of the ancient viruses could have become dominant after being released from the ice. This means that the ‘time traveler’ pathogen has the risk of triggering changes in the ecology as well as threatening human health.
Here are 8 ancient viruses that can ‘awaken’ if the permafrost thaws.
1. Pithovirus sibericum
This is one of the largest types of viruses ever found. At about 1.5 micrometers long, the virus is about the same size as a small bacterium and belongs to the category of ‘giant viruses’ or double-stranded DNA viruses that can be seen under a light microscope.
2. Mollivirus sibericum
The virus was found frozen in samples of Siberian permafrost that are 30,000 years old, just like Pithovirus sibericum. However, it has a smaller size of 0.6-1.5 micrometers.
Mollivirus sibericum is rough and surrounded by a hairy coat. This virus can also produce 200 to 300 new virus particles from each amoeba it infects.
3. Pithovirus mammoth
Mammoth pithovirus is one of the recorded types of pithovirus extracted from 27,000 year old petrified mammoth wool clumps. The wool was found on the banks of the Yana River in the Russian Far East.
This virus has large particles up to 1.8 micrometers long and has a cork-like structure similar to Pithovirus sibericum.
4. Pandoravirus mammoth
Viruses from the Pandoraviridae genus make up the majority of viruses lifted from permafrost. This giant virus infects amoebas and has large amphora-shaped particles that are up to 1.2 micrometers long.
Like mammoth pithovirus, this virus was found in clumps of mammoth wool on the banks of the Yana River. The virus was also found in the stomach contents of a 28,600-year-old petrified mammoth on the Lyakhovsky Archipelago off Russia’s northeastern coast.
5. Pandoravirus yedoma
This is the oldest virus raised from permafrost to date. This pathogen is 48,500 years old and was found in ice deposits under a lake in Yukechi Alas, in the Russian Far East.
The yedoma pandoravirus has large, egg-shaped particles up to 1 micrometer in length. Amoeba is one of the hosts for this virus.
6. Megavirus mammoth
The mammoth megavirus is the first ancient virus to be found in permafrost. This virus, which belongs to the Mimiviridae family, was discovered in cooling tower water in Bradford, England, in 1992.
This virus infects amoebas and has particles up to 0.5 micrometers in diameter. It is also encased in a capsule with 20 identical triangular sides.
NEXT: Pacmanvirus Lupus and Cedratvirus lena
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2023-07-30 13:00:00
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