Understanding the genetic basis of the switch from asexual to sexual lifestyles in response to sometimes rapid environmental changes is one of the major challenges in fungal ecology. Light appears to play a critical role in the asexual–sexual switch—but fungal genomes harbour diverse light sensors. Fungal opsins are homologous to bacterial green‐light‐sensory rhodopsins, and their organismal functions in fungi have not been we...

Summary Light plays an important role for most organisms on this planet, serving either as a source of energy or information for the adaptation of biological processes to specific times of day. The fungal kingdom is estimated to contain well over a million species, possibly 10‐fold more, and it is estimated that a majority of the fungi respond to light, eliciting changes in several physiological characteristics including patho...