Scientists make a valuable discovery in a glacial plateau on the northwest part of Tibet in China. This discovery finds viruses that were in a deep freeze in the glacier for the past 15,000 years. These viruses are archaic and unknown to science, and it will give an idea of how viruses developed and culture that long ago.
They did the initial probes to determine where to get the ancient viruses. Retrieving two ice cores from the ancient glacier to see for the first time in the modern era, a group of 28-unknow viruses that will be studied.
All the data was presented on paper in the bioRxiv database on Jan. 7, this year. A wealth of knowledge to be acquired will be vital on two counts, one is which of the virus strains survive in several climes, also what those conditions were too.
Several ideas from the big thaw are the release of archaic pathogens is not a good eventuality. Climate change is creating an imbalance in nature, that might release viruses that most animals have no immunity from. Most of those animals are now extinct, so it presents an awful conundrum for current conditions. Better to know what makes them tick and avoid serious problems.
Looking for viruses
Examining these archaic glacial microbes is not easy, with conditions that need to be maintained to preserve them. One concern is keeping the ice cores immaculate and free of today's bacteria when handling and transporting it. To this end, the researchers devised means to keep the microbe samples intact during the examination. These specimens are valuable to science and should not be damaged in any way when sampled.
Both of the samples were taken in the Guliya ice cap, in 1992 and 2015. One stark difference during these retrievals is no special procedures were done when acquiring them. Which damaged the outer shell of the drilled ice cores.
Several steps were created to access the unaffected parts in the inner core. Here are the steps which were done. Any slight contamination will affect the results, and getting the data kept in the cores is crucial for the scientists.
a. A cold room is used to study samples from the ice cores. The temperature kept was maintained at 23 degrees Fahrenheit, with a sterilize bad saw to cut 0.2-inches at the other layer.
b. Next, they washed the ice cores with ethanol to melt 0.2-inches again from it.
c. The last step is washing 0.2-inches, using sterilized water.
d. After this process of removing 0.6-inches of ice, to access the pristine layer of the cores to study.
e. Utilizing this process keep contamination at bay, even with intentional exposure to other impurities.
Data gained from this experiment revealed that 33 groups of viral genera found in the frigid cores. These archaic viruses had 28 genera were unknown to current knowledge one scientist noted. Viruses in the two blocks were not the same, assuming these differed what epochs it was formed.
Having glaciers holding such viruses is to be expected. As the glaciers melt, more of these viral remnants are going to be lost. They are valuable sources of data from epochs ago, these viruses should be preserved by science not destroyed forever.
Read: Ancient never-before-seen viruses discovered locked up in Tibetan glacier
