Giant Virus Resurrected From Permafrost After 30,000 Years

Summary: Recently a giant virus has been resurrected from Siberian permafrost that has been buried for 30,000 years. Although the virus only infects single-celled organisms, there is now a possibility that warming climate and exploration in Siberia could release ancient viruses (example: smallpox). Since Neanderthals and humans lived in Siberia not too long ago ( as recently as 28,00 years ago), this means that diseases that plagued both species could still be there. Researches wanted to find another example of an unknown pathogen so they looked at some permafrost samples taken from Kolyma in the Russian Far East in 2000 and put the samples in contact with amoebas. Some amoebas burst and died, and when investigated scientist found that the cause was an ancient virus that infects only amoebas.

There are differing opinions on ancient virus's potential harm to humans. Jean-Michel Claverie, a bioinformatics researcher at Aix-Marseille University in France says,"'... if they [the viruses] have been extinct for a long time, then our immune system is no longer prepared to respond to them."' Arguing that there is no potential harm,  Curtis Suttle, a marine virologist at the University of British Columbia in Canada says,"'...the probability that viral pathogens of humans are abundant enough, and would circulate extensively enough to affect human health, stretches scientific rationality to the breaking point."'

Relevance: This article relates to our microbes unit, and more specifically to viruses and pathogens. A pathogen is a bacteria, virus, or another microorganism that can cause disease. The two newly discovered viruses that are mentioned in the summary above are pathogens to single-celled organisms and amoebas, so they are no harm to us. However, they still cause concern because this discovery proved that ancient viruses can be resurrected so the resurrection of an ancient virus that is a pathogen to humans (like smallpox) is a possibility.

Author: Tia Ghose
Date Published: March 4, 2014
URL: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/03/04/giant-virus-resurrected-after-30000-years/