Viruses in Arctic ice are unique and encode genes to keep microbes warm
A recent study from postdoc Zhong et al. (Byrd Polar Center, OSU) examined the virus diversity and evolution from 40,000-year-old Arctic cryopeg brines. Such samples can reveal clues on past climate conditions and selection pressures faced by microbes through millennia. Through a combination of cutting-edge genomic approaches - including long-read viromics - the authors found >10,000 novel viruses, half of which were predicted to be actively infecting key marine microbes. Some viruses even encoded genes that enhance cold resistance to their host. Moreover, when compared to seawater samples, brine viruses were found to be unique to brines and under different evolutionary pressures. Together, these results provide baseline data on the unique conditions of the endangered cryosphere.
