• Question: Thank you for that amazing chat, This is a question you didn't get to answer, What is the coldest temperature a virus can survive in?

    Asked by to Ian on 20 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ian Hands-Portman

      Ian Hands-Portman answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      It depends on the virus – some are quite delicate. Viruses with a flexible fatty envelope ( like the ones that surround our cells ) like ‘flu often don’t like being frozen but can be happy in the fridge for months. Other viruses with a hard outer coat ‘capsid’ in scientist speak are incredibly tough – we often store them in liquid nitrogen at -270C, sometimes for decades.

      In the wild it’s a bit different but live viruses have been got out of permafrost – areas of soil that have been frozen for centuries if not thousands of years.

      A virus I use just as quick test for the microscopes – Tobacco mosaic virus even survives drying out and storing in a cupboard for years ( that’s why I use it ), it can infect chillies and tomatoes and I know at least one group that’s managed to get live virus from a bottle of chilli sauce. Good job it doesn’t infect us..

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