The Mollivirus sibericum will be revived by scientists, dating back to the Ice Age. (Photo : CNRS / Aix-Marseille University School of Medicine)
Scientists who are working on site in the freezing tundras of Siberia apparently uncovered a 30,000 year old dormant virus in which, the microbiologists are planning to reanimate.
The team of researchers revealed that this ancient viral strain is called Mollivirus sibericum, where scientists classify this as a "giant virus" where it is longer than half a micron, measuring at .6 microns.
According to author of the study, Jean-Michel Claverie from the Aix-Marseille University in France who is also a genomics expert, the reason why the team is now focusing on the reanimation of this giant virus is that global warming will inevitably unleash this virus soon. Viruses such as the Mollivirus sibericum can be trapped under permafrost where unprecedented rising temperatures can cause ancient ice to melt.
Claverie adds that in order to carry out this reanimation process, just a few viral particles that are still considered potent and infectious is enough when there is a vulnerable host present, in order to revive pathogenic viruses.
Apart from global warming, developing oil and gas exploration can potentially unleash these viral particles that have been trapped under this ancient frost for hundreds of years. Claverie adds that, industrializing areas that contain this ancient virus without any warnings in place, poses a dangerous and serious risk of reviving these viruses such as small pox that have already been once wiped out.
Claverie was also part of the team who also discovered another giant virus called the Pithovirus sibericum interestingly at the same location last 2013 where they were able to reanimate the virus under laboratory conditions.
These giant viruses also date back to the last Ice Age where they are bigger and possess a more complex genetic structure. M. sibericum however is larger with more than 500 genes where another family of giant virus that was discovered in 2003 called the Pandoravirus, has a massive 2,500 genes as opposed to the Influenza A virus that has only eight genes.
These findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
