“…Antarctic cryptoendolithic microorganisms have to face several stresses simultaneously and they need to concurrently develop survival strategies to address external conditions. A conspicuous number of studies have been performed on the adaptation strategies on black fungi from these communities, resulted highly resistant in terms of extremes of temperatures, acidity, osmotic stress and salinity, dehydration and irradiation (Sterflinger, 2006;Sterflinger et al, 2012;Gorbushina et al, 2003;Dadachova et al, 2007;Onofri et al, 2007;2008;Selbmann et al, 2017); besides, the stress-response mechanisms of whole metacommunity has not yet been investigated, either on metagenomic or metabolomic level. In this investigation, for the first time to our knowledge, metabolomics was successfully applied to Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities to start defining adaptation strategies adopted by these communities to survive in these harsh conditions.…”