Mengting Luo

Institute of Life Sciences, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Plant Gene and Trait, 2026, Vol. 17, No. 3   
Received: 10 May, 2026    Accepted: 12 Jun., 2026    Published: 25 Jun., 2026

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.

This study explored the yield-related traits of cucumber and their variation and formation mechanisms. The characteristics and interrelationships of major yield components, including vegetative growth traits, reproductive growth traits, population structure, and stress-resistance traits, were systematically analyzed. The effects of natural germplasm resources, artificial selection, and molecular-level genetic variation on the formation of cucumber yield traits were also discussed. Furthermore, the physiological mechanisms underlying yield formation, including photosynthesis and assimilate accumulation, hormonal regulation, and environmental factor regulation, were elucidated. Advances in functional genes related to fruit morphology, parthenocarpy, organ size, and stress resistance, as well as signal transduction networks and multi-omics studies, were summarized. In addition, the roles of cultivation technologies, such as greenhouse environmental regulation, water and fertilizer management, and cultivation pattern optimization, in cucumber yield formation were reviewed. Combined with recent advances in marker-assisted selection, genomic selection, CRISPR/Cas gene editing, high-throughput phenotyping, and artificial intelligence technologies, the current challenges and future breeding directions for high-yield cucumber research were further discussed. This review provides a theoretical reference for breeding new cucumber varieties with high yield, superior quality, stable production, and stress resistance, as well as for optimizing efficient cultivation techniques.

Cucumber; Yield traits; Genetic variation; Molecular regulation; High-yield breeding