International Journal of Horticulture, 2025, Vol.15, No.4, 162-170 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 162 Research Insight Open Access Genetic Regulation of Nocturnal Flowering in Pitaya Floral Morphology, Olfactory Cues, and Pollination Adaptation Wenzhong Huang, Zhonggang Li Tropical Medicinal Plant Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding email: zhonggang.li@hitar.org International Journal of Horticulture, 2025, Vol.15, No.4 doi: 10.5376/ijh.2025.15.0017 Received: 20 May, 2025 Accepted: 29 Jun., 2025 Published: 30 Jul., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Huang and Li, 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 W.Z., and Li Z.G., 2025, Genetic regulation of nocturnal flowering in pitaya floral morphology, olfactory cues, and pollination adaptation, International Journal of Horticulture, 15(4): 162-170 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2025.15.0017) Abstract This study investigated the genetic regulation mechanism of night flowering in Pitaya (Hylocereus spp.). In the application of multi-omics technology, transcriptome and metabolome analysis were used to reveal the central role of sugar and hormone signaling in flower bud induction, as well as the potential role of epigenetic and miRNA in flowering regulation. The flower structure and aroma components showed a high degree of coordination with nocturnal pollinators, providing a new perspective for understanding the pollination adaptation of pitaya fruit. The integration of genetic and environmental factors plays a very important role in optimizing the flowering time and breeding strategy of Pitaya fruit, improving the yield and quality of Pitaya fruit, and providing theoretical basis for future research. Keywords Pitaya; Nocturnal flowering; Genetic regulation; Multi-omics analysis; Pollination adaptation 1 Introduction Pitaya (Hylocereus spp.), is becoming more and more popular. pitaya tastes good, looks attractive, and is good for health. People like pitaya because it is rich in healthy substances such as vitamins, antioxidants and fiber (Xiong et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2022). pitaya is also becoming more and more valuable financially and more and more people want to buy it. To produce more and better fruit. If you want to see pitaya outside the normal growing season, you need to understand how pitaya flowers grow and develop. The flowering process is a critical stage in the growth of pitaya, which affects the yield and quality of pitaya. Affected by many factors such as genes and environment, the growth process of pitaya flower is very complicated. pitaya flowers exhibit a unique nocturnal flowering pattern, which is regulated by circadian rhythms and can attract specific pollinators (Prieto-Benitez et al., 2016; Ye et al., 2021; Shah et al., 2025). Genetic regulation of flowering, signaling pathways associated with sugar and hormone signaling, is critical for flower bud formation and subsequent flowering (Wu et al., 2022; Shah et al., 2025). Understanding these mechanisms to find ways to improve flowering timing and increase fruit yield, especially in the absence of natural pollinators (Muniz et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2023). This study will investigate how pitaya regulates flowering at night. Understanding flower structure, smell, and how plants adapt to pollinators, understanding which genes and other factors influence these processes, and knowing this information can lead to better ways to grow pitaya and produce more fruit. This study puts forward suggestions on the problems existing in pitaya research and industrial development and the future research direction, and provides reference and basis for the production and scientific research of pitaya. 2 Floral Development in Pitaya 2.1 How floral organs develop There are many different genes and plant hormones involved in the growth of pitaya flowers. Transcriptome analysis showed that the activity of many genes varied at different stages of peanut growth, mainly involved in hormone signaling, energy utilization, carbohydrate transport and gene expression. The hormones indole-3-acetic acid, abscisic acid and ethylene are important in the flowering process (Wu et al., 2022). Genes related to sugar
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