The Dhaka Times Desk The world's largest virus has been found under a 34,000-year-old frozen ice block. The virus was found about 100 feet deep in the subterranean frozen regions of Siberia.
A group of French scientists discovered this virus. Researchers believe that the age of freezing of the virus is 10,000 years. In medical terms, a virus is a pathogen. The virus is not completely dead nor is it considered alive. Actually this virus is a combination of organism and inanimate. In the animal body it behaves like an organism and reproduces. But outside the host's body its behavior is completely inert.
In 2000, a team of French scientists led by Jean-Michel Clavery and Chantel Abergel traveled to the Ionescu region of Siberia to test how viruses survive in harsh environments. Researchers unexpectedly recovered a 10,000-year-old frozen virus while drilling between ice blocks. They carefully extract the soil from deep within the ice block and extract the outer layer with alcohol. Through radiocarbon dating, you can understand that the soils are about 34 thousand years old. It took about a year to test these soil samples.
Almost all viruses discovered until 2003 were microscopic and some were fragments of bacterial cells. Most of the larger viruses discovered before have been found off the coast of Chile. Pandora virus, one of the largest viruses is only 1 micrometer in length. But the recently discovered Pithovirus is 1.5 micrometers in length, which is 100 times larger than normal viruses. With the help of light microscope, its shape is oval.
Previously discovered large viruses such as Pandora virus, megavirus are genetically almost identical. But the frozen fresh virus is completely different in nature. Researchers believe that research on this frozen virus will lead us in new directions. One thing is clear from here that these viruses can survive in frozen ice for about 30 thousand years. Because they do not expend any extra energy through their metabolic activity. This is due to the transformation of their inert state which prolongs their survival.
Note that viruses enter the body of unicellular amoeba or bacteria and take over their cells. It then makes an exact copy of its own body's DNA. This is how they reproduce in the host.
Reference: Smithsonian
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