Germplasm Resources and Genetic Breeding of Huang-Qi (Astragali Radix): A Systematic Review
Pengbin Dong,
Lingjuan Wang,
Yong Chen,
Liyang Wang,
Wei Liang,
Hongyan Wang,
Jiali Cheng,
Yuan Chen,
Fengxia Guo
Affiliations
Pengbin Dong
College of Agronomy, College of Life Science and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Lingjuan Wang
Pingliang City Plant Protection Centre, Pingliang 743400, China
Yong Chen
Institute of Soil, Fertilizer and Agricultural Water saving, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi 830000, China
Liyang Wang
College of Agronomy, College of Life Science and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Wei Liang
College of Agronomy, College of Life Science and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Hongyan Wang
College of Agronomy, College of Life Science and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Jiali Cheng
College of Agronomy, College of Life Science and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Yuan Chen
College of Agronomy, College of Life Science and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Fengxia Guo
College of Agronomy, College of Life Science and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Huang-Qi (Astragali radix) is one of the most widely used herbs in traditional Chinese medicine, derived from the dried roots of Astragalus membranaceus or Astragalus membranaceus var. mongholicus. To date, more than 200 compounds have been reported to be isolated and identified in Huang-Qi. However, information pertaining to Huang-Qi breeding is considerably fragmented, with fundamental gaps in knowledge, creating a bottleneck in effective breeding strategies. This review systematically introduces Huang-Qi germplasm resources, genetic diversity, and genetic breeding, including wild species and cultivars, and summarizes the breeding strategy for cultivars and the results thereof as well as recent progress in the functional characterization of the structural and regulatory genes related to horticultural traits. Perspectives about the resource protection and utilization, breeding, and industrialization of Huang-Qi in the future are also briefly discussed.
