Integrative phenotypic screening and multi-trait optimization to identify productive and operationally efficient elite Ganoderma lucidum strains

Selection of superior Ganoderma strains requires consideration of fruiting ability, productivity, earliness, performance stability and production efficiency rather than yield alone. In the present study, 69 Ganoderma strains were screened under standardized cultivation conditions, and 36 fruiting strains were evaluated across two consecutive crop cycles using phenotypic, multivariate, multi-objective and operational-efficiency analyses. Fruiting competence was 52.2%, while total yield among responsive strains ranged from 22.1 to 177.2 g bag -1 (BE, 5.5-44.3%), with yield and BE exhibiting the greatest phenotypic variability (CV=44.0%), followed by spawn-run duration (CV=27.1%) and pinning-to-first-harvest duration (CV=19.6%). Yield was highly repeatable between crop cycles (ICC = 0.989; Lin’s CCC=0.989). Spawn-run duration was strongly negatively associated with yield and remained the principal independent developmental predictor (standardized β=−0.648), with developmental traits explaining 45.8% of yield variation. Principal component analysis captured 89.1% of total phenotypic variation in the first two components and revealed a dominant earliness–productivity gradient. Pareto optimization identified ten non-dominated cultivation ideotypes, while Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) sensitivity analysis resolved a robust seven-strain elite core. These elite strains exhibited approximately 21% shorter median production cycles and 2.30-fold greater modelled space-time and theoretical annualized productivity, together with 56.5% lower estimated energy intensity and 52.3% lower estimated production-cost intensity under standardized operational assumptions. DMRO-395 and DMRO-456 emerged as the strongest balanced candidates, whereas DMRO-45 combined the maximum yield (177.2 g bag -1 ) with the highest BE (44.3%) and greatest operational efficiency. DMRO-396 and DMRO-362 were distinguished by high productivity and stability. Integrating fruiting competence, phenotypic performance, biological efficiency, repeatability, multi-trait optimization and operational efficiency provided a robust framework for identifying productive, stable and resource-efficient Ganoderma strains.