Global warming is of major concern to the population of this planet. The newest threat to humanity comes from melting Arctic permafrost: ancient viruses. The latest discovery, the Mollivirus sibericum, is massive in size. The giant virus is 0.6 microns across, Geek reports. It is visible using a simple optical microscope.
The melting ice has already uncovered a total of 4 giant viruses. The first prehistoric virus was the Mimivirus in 2003. The second and third were discovered just one year apart from each other. The Pandoravirus and Pithovirus sibericum were discovered in 2013 and 2014 respectively, Motherboard reported.
What is truly startling about these giant viruses is their size. This is in large part to the sheer number of genes they contain. To give perspective, the Influenza A virus has eight genes. The Mimivirus has 979 genes while the family of Megaviruses and Pandoraviruses have a whopping 2,556 protein-encoding genes. Mollivirus, the newest addition to the family, has 500 genes.
So far, these viruses are not harmful to humans. Lab tests, however, show the giant viruses devouring amoeba. The danger here is that many more prehistoric viruses can be uncovered by the melting ice. Mollivirus and Pithovirus both came from Sibera. It is not a farfetched idea that something like smallpox will be released by mining, digging, and other human efforts in these areas.
The scientists who released their paper on the new giant virus said, "The fact that two different viruses could be easily revived from prehistoric permafrost should be of concern in a context of global warming."
Additionally, "A few viral particles that are still infectious may be enough, in the presence of a vulnerable host, to revive potentially pathogenic viruses," one of the researchers Jean-Michel Claverie said. "If we are not careful, and we industrialize these areas without putting safeguards in place, we run the risk of one day waking up viruses such as small pox that we thought were eradicated."
