Researchers at the San Francisco Institute of Blood Systems have succeeded in reviving a virus from the remains found in the feces of a caribou . The peculiarity is that the herbivore made its deposition in the Selwyn Mountains (Canada) … 700 years ago . Ice preserved this biological treasure for posterity.
Thanks to reverse genetics , Eric Delwar and his colleagues were able to make a copy of the complete genome of the virus, which turned out to be pathogenic for the plant species Nicotiana benthamiana (a type of tobacco plant), as the scientists verified when inoculating the microbe. "We verified that it was replicated in its leaves," Delwar said. The virus possibly passed into the caribou's stomach through an infected plant.
According to some experts, this discovery – which is in addition to other similar ones made previously – shows that global warming and human activities could reactivate potentially infectious microorganisms preserved in snow, ice or permafrost, the permanent frozen layer of the most regions. cold places on the planet.
