Sensitivities of the backscattering properties to microphysical properties (in particular, size and shape) of mineral dust aerosols are examined based on TAMUdust2020, a comprehensive single-scattering property database of irregular aerosol particles. We develop the bulk mineral dust particle models based on size-resolved particle ensembles with randomly distorted shapes and spectrally resolved complex refractive indices, which are constrained with in-situ observations reported in the literature. The lidar ratio is more sensitive to particle shape than particle size, while the depolarization ratio is sensitive to particle size. The simulated bulk backscattering properties (i.e., the lidar ratio and the depolarization ratio) of typical mineral dust particles with effective radii of 0.5–3 µm are reasonably consistent with lidar observations made during several field campaigns. The dust bulk optical property models are applicable to lidar-based remote sensing of dust aerosol properties.