Project description:Large amounts of carbon sequestered in permafrost are becoming available for microbial degradation. We investigated 1,529 microbial metagenome-assembled genomes recovered from our site to understand carbon processing in this environment. Metabolic reconstruction, supported by metatranscriptomic and metaproteomic data, revealed key populations involved in organic matter degradation, including bacteria encoding a pathway for xylose degradation only previously identified in fungi.