Giant, ancient viruses are thawing out in Siberia — and they're changing everyth

[astr0144]

Giant, ancient viruses are thawing out in Siberia — and they're changing everything we thought we knew about them.

Melting ice in the Arctic circle has been thawing out some gigantic ancient viruses.




Last month, researchers announced they were studying a 30,000-year-old giant virus called Mollivirus sibericum that they found in melted Siberian permafrost. The virus was functional and able to infect amoeba.

This isn't the first time researchers have found big viruses that have challenged what we thought we knew about the tiny invaders. Mimivirus, discovered in 2003, has 1,200 genes and is twice the width of traditional viruses.

But it was this most recently discovered virus which prompted several outlets to suggest that once it thawed out, it could escape and make lots of people sick.

We recently chatted with New York Times columnist and "A Planet of Viruses" author Carl Zimmer to see what he thought about the discovery. In terms of its potential risk to people, he said we don't need to be concerned.

But he said the finding is fascinating for several other reasons, including what it tells us about viruses in general.

"These particular viruses infect amoeba. So if you're an amoeba, yeah you should be really scared," Zimmer told Business Insider. "There are no human pathogens that have burst out of the Siberian permafrost. That's not to say that viruses won't emerge, but there are so many viruses circulating in living animals, I think we should put these frozen viruses very low on our list of concerns."

Instead, Zimmer said they were more fascinating than scary.

These viruses are about 30 times bigger than your average virus, rivaling the size of a bacterium. Here's a shot of Mollivirus sibericum under the microscope:



In addition to its unusual size, Mollivirus sibericum has other components which separate it from the vast majority of viruses. It has more than 500 genes, for example, which give the virus instructions for making proteins. By contrast, HIV has just nine genes.

"They're in and of themselves fascinating and they really challenge us to think about what viruses are," said Zimmer.

Viruses are technically not considered alive, but these giant viruses do seem to have some of the qualities of being alive, like a functioning metabolism. If we're ever going to rethink the characteristics of viruses, these giant thawed-out viruses will be the ones to make us do it.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/giant-ancient-viruses-thawing-siberia-181400241.html

[zorgon]

Remember Legionnaires' disease?

If we start seeing thawed out bugs that haven't seen the light of day for hundreds of thousands of years, who know how they will effect humans?

Lake Vostok drilling  They stopped when they started finding all sorts of unknown bugs. That water is warm under the ice. Hasn't seen the light of day for 420,000 years

[astr0144]

It does seem like it maybe a case of a form of freezing preserving various past forms of living organisms, be it virus's or bacteria.

It reminds me of one of the "X Files" films where an Alien Virus come back to Life.  Its to hope that we don't have any similar that become thawed out... 

It is thought provoking to realise that some of these things have been exposed to light or normal atmosphere for such a long time.

Remember Legionnaires' disease?

If we start seeing thawed out bugs that haven't seen the light of day for hundreds of thousands of years, who know how they will effect humans?

Lake Vostok drilling  They stopped when they started finding all sorts of unknown bugs. That water is warm under the ice. Hasn't seen the light of day for 420,000 years

[ArMaP]

Remember Legionnaires' disease?

Yes, but I don't see the relation. 

[zorgon]

Yes, but I don't see the relation. 

Because the ORIGINAL report was that it was an unknown strain that was dug up at a construction site and infected a convention...

On January 18, 1977, the causative agent was identified as a previously unknown strain of bacteria, subsequently named Legionella, and the species that caused the outbreak was named Legionella pneumophila.

The first recognized cases of Legionnaires' disease occurred in 1976 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Among more than 2000 attendees of a Legionnaires' convention held at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, 221 attendees contracted the disease and 34 of them died

I remember the original live report and the relation to that construction site. Amazing how history changes

[zorgon]

Previously unknown bacteria discovered at bottom of Antarctic lake

Investigations of Antarctic lakes have thrown up a surprising amount of biodiversity, with the famous Lake Vostok containing the DNA of 3,507 organisms, it was reported in July.

In the case of Lake Hodgson, which was formerly a sub-glacial lake like Lake Vostok, but is now only under around four metres of ice, the water itself was devoid of life. However, the sediment at the bottom of the lake, around 100 metres below the surface, was found to hold a "high diversity of life".

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-09/10/lake-hodgson-life

[ArMaP]

I remember the original live report and the relation to that construction site. Amazing how history changes

Or how your memory changes. 

My memory tells me that legionella was found inside the air conditioning tubes of the hotel having the convention.

[zorgon]

Different TIMELINE

[ArMaP]

Different TIMELINE

That's a different way of saying "old age"?