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This is the first find of a giant virus in permafrost. In the process Permanent destruction of shores composed of frozen sediments in viable rivers and oceans get frozen microorganisms, including giant viruses that integrate into modern ecosystems. Scientists discovered in Siberian permafrost over 30 thousand years old a viable giant virus, amoeba parasitic, article says in Proceedings magazine of the National Academy of Sciences. Elizaveta Rivkina, Head Institute of Physicochemical and Soil Cryology Laboratory biological problems of soil science in Pushchino, and senior scientific Lyubov Shmakova, an employee of this laboratory, together with French colleagues led by Dr. Jean-Michel Claverier from Marseilles Institute of Microbiology examined permafrost samples, selected in the Kolyma lowland, which are stored in soil cryology laboratories. Scientists already know giant viruses, parasitic on free-living amoeba that are comparable in sized with bacteria. In the course of joint work highlighted by Shmakova from permafrost, Akantameba infected with megaviruses recently open French scientists. “It turned out that the amoeba from the Siberian permafrost over 30 thousand years old are resistant to megaviruses, that parasitize on amoebas isolated from modern ecosystems. In the course of work, a new one was allocated from the ancient permafrost giant virus called Pithovirus sibericum. For today day is the largest virus described. Also he is representative of a new family of giant amoebic viruses. They are described in our article, “Rivkina told RIA Novosti. This the first find of a giant virus in permafrost. In the process Permanent destruction of shores composed of frozen sediments in viable rivers and oceans get frozen microorganisms, including giant viruses that integrate into modern ecosystems, however, they are safe for humans, since parasitize only on amoeba. Rivkina noted an interesting way “hunting” of giant viruses for amoeba: viruses “lure” them, “pretending to be a tasty bacterium.” Amoeba, absorbing the “bait”, becomes a victim of the virus, turning into a “factory” for production his new copies.
Viruses
