Climate change may release a dormant virus

As images of melting ice caps and destructive natural phenomena plague our consciences during warm winters, we become more convinced that climate change is here. The global warming presented by Al Gore in his film, An Inconvenient Truth is visible; we see it in the news on a daily basis.

But what about the effects of climate change that we can’t see?

Some effects aren’t immediately obvious but are secretly developing under our feet. Recent advances in virology have brought to light an unexpected danger that might actually prove more potent than our preconceived notions of the effects of climate change.

Until recently, the physiology of viruses was thought to be strictly defined. However, just a decade ago, the discovery of the Mimivirus revolutionized this definition, astonishing the scientific community. Just over 0.7 micrometers in size and containing more than 1000 genes, the Mimivirus was more similar to the typical parasitic bacteria than to the typical virus. Shortly after the Mimivirus discovery, a similar virus was found in an Australian pond. Researchers first mistook this virus as a small bacterial or fungal cell. With a length of 1 micrometer and a genome containing 1500 genes, Pandoravirus dulcis was the largest known virus to date that the time of its discovery. It was even larger than some eukaryotic cells. These monster viruses have been nicknamed “Pandoraviruses,” a reference to the mythological Pandora’s box.

Then, last month, the story took a new turn. Under the depths of permafrost that left Siberia untouched for over 30,000 years, a new virus, Pithovirus sibericum was found by Jean-Michel Claverie and Chantal Abergel of Aix-Marseille University in France. At first this discovery seemed infertile, as the physiology of the virus,  offered no new information. However, Claverie and Abergel quickly found that they could thaw the virus in such a way that allowed it to be active again. When Claverie and Abergel introduced amoebas to the cell culture containing the Pithovirus, the revived virus quickly infected many of the amoebas. This activity demonstrates that proper conditions can awaken frozen viruses to a fully functional state. The virus discovered by Claverie and Abergel simply acts as if 30,000 years did not pass.

While most pathogens are not dangerous to humans or other species, modern medicine cannot yet treat all known viruses.

It is possible that within the thousands of square miles of ice that can reach over 2500m deep, a new species of virus will be uncovered that has the potential to devastate the human race. This potential to open Pandora’s box is another real danger of climate change.