Advances in Sexual and Asexual Propagation of Toxicodendron vernicifluum: Mechanisms, Technical Bottlenecks, and Industrialized Breeding Perspectives
Toxicodendron vernicifluum is an economically unique lacquer-producing tree en-demic to East Asia; propagation bottlenecks severely restrict elite clone industrializa-tion. This review systematically synthesizes 20 years of domestic and international lit-erature on seed propagation, root cutting, stem cutting, grafting, and tissue culture of lacquer tree, compares technical performance among China, Japan, Vietnam, and Med-iterranean Rhus species, and quantitatively summarizes germination/rooting rates across protocols. Sexual propagation suffers from seed deep dormancy and progeny segregation; conventional asexual propagation has low rooting efficiency; tissue culture faces high cost and browning obstacles; molecular regulatory mechanisms remain poorly characterized. We propose an integrated breeding framework combining mo-lecular mechanism dissection, low-cost vegetative propagation optimization, and standardized seedling production. Future directions including multi-omics analysis, gene-edited easy-rooting germplasm, and bioreactor micropropagation are highlighted to support large-scale elite seedling cultivation in Qinba Mountain regions.