Scientists Discovered A New Virus Living In The Deepest Part Of The Ocean; What We Know So Far?

Scientists have explored outer space including moon or mars than deepest part of oceans.

Depths of the oceans are so vast, they’re nearly impossible to simplify. With manned submersibles or remotely operated advanced vehicles, scientists are exploring the unexplored deepest parts of the ocean. With more sleeker and manoeuvrable deep sea submarines, director James Cameron made a solo dive into Mariana trench in 2012. With advancement, many new species of squid, octopus, jellyfish have been discovered. These deepest areas of the ocean has a pressure over 1000 times than air pressure on surface. Without light and in chilling temperature, Mariana trench is a place not less than a horror movie ambience. Recently, a group of researchers has discovered a new virus from Mariana trench, which is believed to be the "deepest-known bacteriophage" ever discovered. This article will provide more details about the study and discovery.

About Mariana Trench:

Before going into the details, let's first understand the condition of Mariana Trench, which is known as the world’s deepest hadal habitat (meaning extremely remote and dark), harbouring a wide range of rare microorganisms that have adapted to its severe conditions of high pressure, low temperatures, and nutrient deficiency. Due to lack of exploration, Scientists believe their knowledge about this isolated hadal zones is limited.

The recorded lowest point of the Mariana trench is 11,000 meters.

About the discovery:

The research team has discovered the deepest-located virus from the sediment sample taken from 8,900 metres deep in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench.

"To our best knowledge, this is the deepest known isolated phage in the global ocean," said marine virologist Min Wang in a statement.

The research team from Ocean University of China published their findings in the journal Microbiology Spectrum.

This newly-found virus is named as vB_HmeY_H4907. It is a bacteriophage, that has the capability of infecting and replicating inside bacteria.

This group of bacteriophage, also regarded as Halomonas are abundantly found in the Mariana Trench, Antarctica, and in hydrothermal vents (meaning the fissures on the sea floor which release heated water).

Through genomic analysis of the virus, the scientists confirmed that this bacteriophage belongs to a new viral family named Surviridae.

Have a look on the discovered virus.

Some more exciting details:

Hadal zone is always acknowledged for harbouring unique set of organisms as it provides insights about survival strategies of organisms. According to the research team, this finding has broadened the understanding of behaviour of virus in tough environment. Moreover, it provides an insight on co-evolution of bacteria and viruses. This newly discovered virus is lysogenic in nature which doesn't kill the bacterial host and promote a symbiotic relationship.

"Recent research has revealed the enormous diversity, novelty, and ecological significance of hadal viruses. However, only two strains of hadal viruses have been isolated," the scientists mentioned in the study.

Future research:

With this findings, lead author Wang emphasized on the requirement of further research on the interactions and survival strategies of viruses in these harsh, secluded environments.

The scientists are also searching for other new strains in different extreme places, "which would contribute to broadening our comprehension of the virosphere," Wang, the lead author said. "Extreme environments offer optimal prospects for unearthing novel viruses."