“Let’s just hope none of them infect someone”, writes the site Futurism who relays the discovery. According to the study published on July 20 in the scientific journal Microbiome, the researchers found no less than 33 viruses by analyzing ice taken in 2015 at the top of the Guliyan ice cap, on the plateau tibetan, north of the Himalayas.
This is only the third time that viruses have been identified in ancient glaciers. Before finding themselves trapped in ice, these viruses “Probably came from soil or plants, not animals or humans”, according to the researchers.
28 so far unrecognized viruses
Of these viruses, at least 28 of them have been completely unrecognized by science so far, say researchers in a statement from Ohio State University. Lead author of the study Zhi-Ping Zhong explains that “These glaciers formed gradually and, with the dust and gas, many viruses were introduced into this ice”.
“These are viruses that would have proliferated in extreme environments”says Matthew Sullivan, professor of microbiology at Ohio University. “These viruses have genetic signatures that allow them to infect cells in cold environments”.
14,400 years ago
The ice cores which contained the viruses were taken from an ice cap which culminates at 6,700 meters above the sea. The various ice samples “Subject to viral enrichment” were formed over a period ranging from 355 to 14,400 years, researchers estimate.
The samples “Contain layers of ice that accumulate year after year, trapping what was in the atmosphere”, trace the scientists who hope, thanks to this discovery, to better understand climate change, microbes, viruses and gases throughout history.
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