Plant Gene and Trait 2025, Vol.16, No.5, 215-224 http://genbreedpublisher.com/index.php/pgt 215 Feature Review Open Access Integrative Breeding Approaches of Nelumbo nucifera: Balancing Ornamental Traits and Edible Values Dandan Huang1, Xingzhu Feng1, Haimei Wang1,2 1 Hainan Institute of Biotechnology, Haikou, 570206, Hainan, China 2 Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding email: haimei.wang@hibio.org Plant Gene and Trait, 2025, Vol.16, No.5 doi: 10.5376/pgt.2025.16.0023 Received: 03 Sep., 2025 Accepted: 09 Oct., 2025 Published: 18 Oct., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Huang et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Huang D.D., Feng X.Z., and Wang H.M., 2025, Integrative breeding approaches of Nelumbo nucifera: balancing ornamental traits and edible values, Plant Gene and Trait, 16(5): 215-224 (doi: 10.5376/pgt.2025.16.0023) Abstract This study summarizes the genetic basis and molecular regulatory mechanisms of lotus in ornamental traits such as flower color, flowering period, and plant type, as well as edible qualities such as tubers and seeds. It introduces the process of flower color formation, elaborates the role of key genes such as MUDS-box in the development of floral organs, and the localization of QTL related to tuber yield and the mining of functional genes. It revealed the accumulation patterns of functional components such as flavonoids in different tissues, providing a theoretical basis for simultaneously improving ornamental and edible traits, and explored comprehensive strategies such as the protection of lotus germplasm resources, the utilization of genetic diversity, and molecular marker-assisted breeding. This study aims to provide a molecular basis and technical support for the synergistic improvement of the ornamental and edible quality of lotus and their industrial application. Keywords Nelumbo nucifera; Molecular breeding; Ornamental traits; Edible quality; Multiomics integration 1 Introduction The lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) is a widely used aquatic plant around the world. It can be appreciated, eaten and used in medicine, and also has high economic value. It has a variety of colors and beautiful shapes, and is a common ornamental plant in garden and water feature design. Its rhizome (lotus root) and seeds (lotus seed) are also widely used in Asian diets and traditional medicine (Sun et al., 2025; Yu et al., 2025). In recent years, with the development of genomics and molecular biology, lotus has gradually become an important model plant for research. The related achievements have promoted genetic improvement and functional gene mining, providing theoretical support for the multi-purpose development of lotus (Lin et al., 2019; Li et al., 2021; Sun et al., 2025). Lotus often have a trade-off between their ornamental traits (such as flower color, shape, and flowering period) and edible qualities (such as the yield, texture, and nutritional components of lotus roots). Some varieties with strong ornamental value perform averagally in terms of consumption, while high-yield and high-quality edible varieties often lack ideal ornamental characteristics (Liu et al., 2016; Huang et al., 2021; Sun et al., 2025). Meanwhile, lotus has great genetic diversity, strong environmental adaptability and complex trait genetic mechanisms, all of which increase the difficulty of comprehensive breeding (Lin et al., 2019; Kumar et al., 2024). Therefore, how to utilize new technologies such as molecular marker-assisted selection and genome editing to enhance ornamental value while taking into account edible quality is the core issue currently faced by breeding (Li et al., 2021; Sun et al., 2025). This study summarizes the progress of comprehensive lotus breeding in recent years, analyzes the genetic basis, molecular regulatory mechanisms and the relationship between ornamental traits and edible qualities, explores the application prospects of multi-omics and molecular breeding techniques in the improvement of lotus traits, and also proposes breeding strategies that take into account both ornamental and edible values. This study hopes to provide references for the germplasm innovation and industrial development of lotus.
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