Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) French scientists have resurrected seven viruses that have been frozen in Siberian permafrost for tens of thousands of years, with the youngest frozen for 27,000 years and the oldest frozen for 48,500 years, making it the oldest virus ever revived. And these viruses can still infect organisms, so they believe that melting permafrost may pose a threat to humans.

The team, which includes scientists from Russia, France and Germany, successfully revived two other 30,000-year-old viruses, but their latest discovery broke the record again because this time it was 48,500 years ago. The virus the team found and resurrected is thought to be the oldest virus ever resurrected, and other researchers have claimed to have resurrected bacteria that are said to be 250 million years old.

All the viruses resurrected by the team belong to E. coli, a giant virus that can only infect single-celled organisms such as amoeba. The scientists added permafrost samples to the amoeba culture and examined them under a microscope for signs of infection. The results showed that the virus was "alive" and could replicate itself.

Scientists say these viruses can still infect cells, suggesting that these ancient viruses could infect animals and plants, including humans, if the permafrost thaws. Moreover, if ancient giant viruses remain contagious after they have been frozen for such a long time, other kinds of viruses will also be contagious.

CTOnews.com has learned that Russia has warned that the continued thawing of permafrost caused by climate change could be dangerous. In 2021, Russia's senior representative to the Arctic Council, Nikolai Korchunov, said the thawed soil had been deeply frozen for centuries or even thousands of years and could still contain spores of "zombie" bacteria and viruses. It considered the danger serious enough to launch a biosafety project and called on all other Arctic Council countries to join the project.

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