Our planet is dominant with cold environments that harbour enormously diverse cold-adapted fungi comprising representatives of all phyla. Investigation based on culture-dependent and independent methods has demonstrated that cold-adapted fungi are cosmopolitan and occur in diverse habitants and substrates. They live as saprobes, symbionts, plant and animal parasites and pathogens to perform crucial functions in different ecosystems. Pseudogymnoascus destructans caused bat white-nose syndrome and Ophiocordyceps sinensis as Chinese medicine are the representative species that have significantly ecological and economic significance. Adaptation to cold niches has made this group of fungi a fascinating resource for the discovery of novel enzymes and secondary metabolites for biotechnological and pharmaceutical uses. This review provides the current understanding of living strategy and ecological functions of cold-adapted fungi, with particular emphasis on how those fungi overcome the extreme low temperature and perform their ecological function.

A new species, Apiosordaria hamata, is described and illustrated from sediment collected from Donghu Lake, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Apiosordaria hamata is characterized by its cleistothecial ascomata with agglutinated hairs, a thin peridium, clavate asci, and two-celled, biseriate, ovoid ascospores. However, it differs from other Apiosordaria species in having hooked spines on the upper cell of the ascospores and lacking germ pores. Combined ITS and LSU sequence analyses using maximum likelihood and Bayesian analysis nest A. hamata in the Apiosordaria clade. Both morphological and molecular analyses support this fungus as a new species of Apiosordaria. A key to Apiosordaria species is provided.