Cryophilic fungi to denote fungi in the cryosphere

Fungi are widely distributed in the cryosphere where the habitat is constantly or seasonally covered with snow and/or ice. Fungi normally have different cells in their life cycle; fungal thermal dependence varies according to their life cycle stages and is completely different from that of bacteria. Examples are illustrated to show that the concept of psychrophile by Morita (1975) does not apply to fungi, and we propose a new term “cryophilic fungi” for those that spend a certain life stage or whole life cycle (sexual and/or asexual reproductive stages) in the cryosphere.