International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol.15, No.4, 208-220 http://www.aquapublisher.com/index.php/ija 209 and harvesting technology in recent years. The full text is based on the key links of the water chestnut industry chain: introducing the botanical characteristics and variety selection and breeding progress of water chestnuts, discussing the technological innovation of breeding and seedling cultivation and management strategies, and elaborating on green prevention and control of diseases and diseases, harvesting and primary processing technology optimization, as well as new progress in post-harvest storage and storage transportation. Based on the current industry situation, discuss the key directions and challenges of the future development of water chestnuts. Summary of the key points of the full text and put forward suggestions for future scientific research and industrial work. Through this study, we hope to provide theoretical reference and technical reference for high-yield and high-quality cultivation of water chestnuts and sustainable industrial development. 2 Botanical Characteristics and Variety Development Status of Water Chestnuts 2.1 Biological characteristics and ecological adaptability Water chestnuts are perennial shallow water-type herbs. The plants have stolons and clumpy leaf-like stems, and the height is generally 50 cm to 80 cm. Its underground bulb is nearly spherical, with purple-brown skin, white, crisp and tender flesh, and is the main edible part. Water chestnuts like warm and humid climatic conditions, with a suitable growth temperature of 22 ℃~30 ℃. They are often cultivated in autumn under the double-season rice fields in the southern region. It is a short-day plant, and the photoperiod has a significant impact on the formation of bulbs: Generally, when the sunlight is less than 12 to 13 hours, it is conducive to the expansion of tubers, and when the sunlight is gradually shortened in high-latitude areas, it is conducive to the formation of larger bulbs by water chestnuts, while low-latitude areas or too long light may delay the formation of tubers. Water chestnuts are resistant to shallow water and damp soil, and their roots are mainly distributed in 10 cm~15 cm soil layers, which have high requirements for soil aerability (Santosa et al., 2021). Its ecological adaptability is wide, and paddy fields and wetlands in subtropical areas can grow normally, but it is not resistant to frost and drought. Water chestnuts have certain ecological functions of purifying water quality and improving soil. They can be planted in rotation with rice to achieve both ecological and economic benefits. 2.2 Main planting varieties and their comparisons After long-term breeding, some water chestnut cultivation varieties with regional characteristics have been formed in various places. The "Guilin Horseshoe" in Guangxi is famous for its large balls, thin skin and crisp flesh. It is a traditional export fresh food species, but its disease resistance is average. The skin of "black taro" in Panyu, Guangdong has a purple-black skin and high sugar content, but the yield per mu is relatively low. The "red bud water chestnut" bud sheath in Qianshan, Jiangxi is red and has good cold resistance, and is suitable for cultivation in the northern margin area. The new varieties that have been bred in recent years include the "Guizushi Series" and "Guizushi Powder Hoof Series". "Guiti No. 2" and "Guiti No. 3" are fresh food species selected from tissue culture variation based on local germplasm. They are of high quality and have good commercial properties. It is reported that the average birth period of "Guiti No. 3" is 150 days, and the yield per mu can reach more than 3,000 kilograms. "Gui Fen Hoo No. 1" is a special type of starch processing, with a particularly high starch content (up to more than 30%). It is the first special type of water chestnut powder processing approved in China. Compared with traditional varieties, the new varieties have significantly improved disease resistance and adaptability (Ghazanfar, 2001). 2.3 Progress in variety improvement and molecular breeding 2.3.1 Research and exploration of using marker-assisted selection by ISSR, RAPD and other markers Early research used molecular marker technology to reveal the genetic background of water chestnut germplasm resources. Jiang Wen and others from Jiangxi Agricultural University used RAPD and ISSR marks to analyze the genetic diversity of 24 water chestnut varieties resources across the country, and divided the water chestnut materials for trial into 5 groups. Such studies found that the genetic similarity coefficients of water chestnuts from different origins are between 0.5 and 0.8, revealing that the overall genetic basis of cultivars is relatively narrow (Chen et al., 2024), and it is urgently needed to broaden them. Another ISSR analysis of 35 water chestnut germplasms constructed a water chestnut fingerprint map, and divided the test materials into two major groups,
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