The study of the viral component of ancient microbial communities from permafrost is important
for the understanding evolution of microbial communities, possibility of their variations due to
climate change, changes in the physical-chemical state of permafrost and practical questions of
biosafety. For the first time the virus particles in native samples of ancient ice wedges of the
Mammoth Mountain in Siberia have been discovered. Defined morphological diversity of viruses
that can be attributed to five main types: miovirus, sifovirus, podovirus, spherical and
filamentous. Specific characteristic of these viruses are small size and fever genome.