An Update on Eukaryotic Viruses Revived from Ancient Permafrost

• Main Authors: Alempic, Jean-Marie, Lartigue, Audrey, Goncharov, Artemiy, E, Grosse, Guido, Strauss, Jens, Tikhonov, Alexey, N, Fedorov, Alexander, N, Poirot, Olivier, Legendre, Matthieu, Santini, Sébastien, Abergel, Chantal, Claverie, Jean-Michel
• Other Authors: Information génomique et structurale (IGS), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Northwestern State Medical Mechnikov University, Alfred Wegener Institute Potsdam, Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung = Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research = Institut Alfred-Wegener pour la recherche polaire et marine (AWI), Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association-Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association, Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS), ANR-10-INBS-0009,France Génomique,Organisation et montée en puissance d'une Infrastructure Nationale de Génomique(2010)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Acanthamoeba; Kamchatka; Pleistocene; Siberia; giant virus; permafrost; MESH: Eukaryota; MESH: Permafrost; MESH: Eukaryotic Cells; MESH: Acanthamoeba; MESH: Carbon Dioxide; [SDV.MP.VIR]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Microbiology and Parasitology/Virology; lena river
• Online Access: https://amu.hal.science/hal-04207147; https://amu.hal.science/hal-04207147/document; https://amu.hal.science/hal-04207147/file/An%20update%20on%20eukaryotic%20viruses%20revived%20from%20ancient%20permafrost%20.pdf; https://doi.org/10.3390/xxxxx

International audience One quarter of the Northern hemisphere is underlain by permanently frozen ground, referred to as permafrost. Due to climate warming, irreversibly thawing permafrost is releasing organic matter frozen for up to a million years, most of which decomposes into carbon dioxide and methane, further enhancing the greenhouse effect. Part of this organic matter also consists of revived cellular microbes (prokaryotes, unicellular eukaryotes) as well as viruses that have remained dormant since prehistorical times. While the literature abounds on descriptions of the rich and diverse prokaryotic microbiomes found in permafrost, no additional report about “live” viruses have been published since the two original studies describing pithovirus (in 2014) and mollivirus (in 2015). This wrongly suggests that such occurrences are rare and that “zombie viruses” are not a public health threat. To restore an appreciation closer to reality, we report the preliminary characterizations of 13 new viruses isolated from seven different ancient Siberian permafrost samples, one from the Lena river and one from Kamchatka cryosol. As expected from the host specificity imposed by our protocol, these viruses belong to five different clades infecting Acanthamoeba spp. but not previously revived from permafrost: Pandoravirus, Cedratvirus, Megavirus, and Pacmanvirus, in addition to a new Pithovirus strain.