Called Phenoliferia<\/strong>, this fungus is a true craftsman of organic matter recycling. By transforming the organic matter fixed by the algae, this invisible fungus establishes an essential link between snow, ice, and neighboring soils \u2014 embedding the cryosphere within the global carbon cycle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Behind the beauty of the \u201cred snows\u201d lies a powerful duo: algae that capture CO\u2082<\/strong> and microscopic fungi that recycle their biomass<\/strong>. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In this image, we can see the cells of the fungus, whose surface is covered with the red pigment produced by snow algae \u2014 astaxanthin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reference : Ezzedine, J.A., Guenzi-Tiberi, P., Villain, G. Aiese Cigliano R., Diagne Y, Franceschi E, Drula E, For\u00eat J, Valay JG, Proch\u00e1zkov\u00e1 L, Remias D, Terrapon N, Amato A, Mar\u00e9chal E (2025) Snow- and ice-ecosystem cleaning capability of the pucciniomycotinous yeast Phenoliferia psychrophenolica.<\/a> Communications Biology<\/em><\/strong> 8, 1084. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s42003-025-08506-w<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The snows and ice of polar regions and mountain summits are not inert deserts!They harbor a still little-known microscopic biodiversity \u2014 including microalgae that, like tiny forests, capture atmospheric CO\u2082 and transform it into spectacularly pigmented biomass, responsible for the famous \u201cred snows.\u201dBut what becomes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17812,"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17809\/revisions\/17812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It decomposes algal pigments and molecules thanks to a genome among the richest known in genes coding for degradation enzymes. Moreover, it holds the world record for the number of ice-binding proteins<\/strong>, a unique asset for surviving in extreme cold.<\/p>\n
This discovery highlights the unexpected strength of snow and glacier biodiversity, whose hidden mechanisms contribute to the resilience of ecosystems in the face of climate change.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/alpalga.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Graphical-Absract-REV-300x243.jpg\")
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