Researchers have discovered treasures of unknown viruses at Tibetan glacier ice that could threaten the world as evolving with the new viruses over time.
In Journal Microbes this week, the researchers have published “the microbes they found, and the methods they used to study them.” Lonnie Thompson told CNET in the email, paleoclimatologist of Ohio State University who is working on the new study said, “Viruses and bacteria play vital roles both good and bad and thus we need to understand those roles much better.
Glacier ice provides one way in which to do that”. Twenty-two thousand feet above the sea level in Western China on the Guliya Icecap summit from where the samples of glaciers came from. Each piece collected from there tells us the story from past climates, environments, and time capsules.
The research team has discovered 33 new viruses dating back from 15,000 years ago. From them, four were known to the scientists, and the rest of the 28 were unknown.
Half of the viruses appeared to survive in the harsh cold and loving them besides living in the frigid temperature ” but because of it, “said Ohio State University in the statement.
“Our research shows that both bacteria and viruses are archived in the layers of ice making up an ice core so these records should allow us to study such things as the evolution of microbes through time,” said Thompson to CNET, “Most of the biodiversity on our planet exists as microbes, most of which we know very little about,” they added.
