The order Helotiales is a large group within the Ascomycetes that incorporates soil saprotrophs, ericoid mycorrhizal fungi and aquatic hyphomycetes (Krauss et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2006) and are found to be dominants in soils from permafrost areas (da Silva et al., 2020; Deslippe et al., 2012). It has been found that members of the Helotiales order have efficient cellulases capable of utilizing ancient carbon from the Antarctic permafrost (Newsham et al., 2018). The isolate P8C63 has been isolated from the sediment of thermokarst ponds in Abisko, Sweden. Thermokarst ponds, which emerge from the thawing permafrost, can be hotspots for microbial production and become an important source of greenhouse gas emissions (Abnizova et al., 2012). However, little is known about the fungal contribution in such water bodies when it comes to carbon degradation. The genome sequencing of fungal isolates from these environments aims to assess their functional potential, and to better understand the fungal contribution to the permafrost carbon feedback cycle.
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