EST-SSR Marker Sets for Practical Authentication of All Nine Registered Ginseng Cultivars in Korea.

Panax ginseng has been cultivated for centuries, and nine commercial cultivars have been registered in Korea. However, these nine elite cultivars are grown in less than 10% of ginseng fields, and there is no clear authentication system for each cultivar even though their values are higher than those of local landraces. Here, we have developed 19 microsatellite markers using expressed gene sequences and established an authentication system for all nine cultivars. Five cultivars, 'Chunpoong', 'Sunpoong', 'Gumpoong', 'Sunun', and 'Sunone', can each be identified by one cultivar-unique allele, gm47n-a, gm47n-c, gm104-a, gm184-a (or gm129-a), and gm175-c, respectively. 'Yunpoong' can be identified by the co-appearance of gm47n-b and gm129-c. 'Sunhyang' can be distinguished from the other eight cultivars by the co-appearance of gm47n-b, gm129-b, and gm175-a. The two other cultivars, 'Gopoong' and 'Cheongsun', can be identified by their specific combinations of five marker alleles. This marker set was successfully utilized to identify the cultivars among 70 ginseng individuals and to select true F1 hybrid plants between two cultivars. We further analyzed the homogeneity of each cultivar and phylogenetic relationships among cultivars using these markers. This marker system will be useful to the seed industry and for breeding of ginseng.

Photosynthetic Characteristics of Resistance and Susceptible Lines to High Temperature Injury in Panax ginseng Meyer.

In this study, photosynthetic parameters such as the net photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance, intercellular CO2 concentration, and transpiration rate were examined in selected ginseng varieties and/or lines that are resistant (Yunpoong, HTIR 1, HTIR 2, and HTIR 3) and susceptible (Chunpoong) to high temperature injury (HTI). The net photosynthesis rate increased with the increase in the light intensity in all the HTI-resistant and -susceptible ginseng lines with a light saturation point of 200 µmol m(-2)s(-1), except for Yunpoong that had a light saturation point of 400 µmol m(-2)s(-1). At the light saturation point, the net photosynthesis rate in July was highest in HTIR 3, at 4.2 µmol CO2 m(-2)s(-1), and was lowest in Yunpoong, HTIR 1, Chunpoong, and HTIR 2, in that order, at 1.9 to 3.7 µmol CO2 m(-2)s(-1). The net photosynthesis rate in August was highest in Yunpoong at 5.9 µmol CO2 m(-2)s(-1), and lowest in HTIR 1 and HTIR 3 (4.5 µmol CO2 m(-2)s(-1)) and in other lines, in that order, at 2.8 to 2.9 µmol CO2 m(-2)s(-1). The stomatal conductance in July was highest in HTIR 3 (0.055 mol H2O m(-2)s(-1)) and Yunpoong, Chunpoong, HTIR 1, and HTIR 2 were 0.038, 0.037, 0.031, and 0.017 in that orders. In August, meanwhile, HTIR 1 showed the highest as 0.075, and followed by HTIR 3, Chungpoong, and HTIR 2 with 0.070, 0.047, and 0.023, respectively. The intercellular CO2 concentration at the light saturation point in July and August was much lower in HTIR 2 at 139 and 185 µmol mol(-1) than in the other ginseng lines at 217 to 257 and 274 to 287 µmol mol(-1), respectively. The transpiration rate in July and August was higher in the HTI-resistant lines of Yunpoong, HTIR 1, and/or HTIR 3 at 0.83 to 1.03 and 1.67 to 2.10 mol H2O m(-2)s(-1) than in the other ginseng lines at 0.27 to 0.79 mol H2O m(-2)s(- 1) and 0.51-1.65 mol H2O m(-2)s(-1), respectively. Conclusively, all the photosynthetic parameters that were examined in this study were generally higher in the HTI-resistant ginseng lines than in the HTI-susceptible lines, except for HTIR 2, and were much higher in August than in July, especially in the resistant ginseng lines. All these results can be used to provide basic information for the selection of HTI-resistant ginseng lines and the application of cultural practices that are efficient for ginseng growth, based on the photosynthetic characteristics of the lines.

Development of Reproducible EST-derived SSR Markers and Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Panax ginseng Cultivars and Related Species.

Little is known about the genetics or genomics of Panax ginseng. In this study, we developed 70 expressed sequence tag-derived polymorphic simple sequence repeat markers by trials of 140 primer pairs. All of the 70 markers showed reproducible polymorphism among four Panax speciesand 19 of them were polymorphic in six P. ginseng cultivars. These markers segregated 1:2:1 manner of Mendelian inheritance in an F2 population of a cross between two P. ginseng cultivars, 'Yunpoong' and 'Chunpoong', indicating that these are reproducible and inheritable mappable markers. A phylogenetic analysis using the genotype data showed three distinctive groups: a P. ginseng-P. japonicus clade, P. notoginseng and P. quinquefolius, with similarity coefficients of 0.70. P. japonicus was intermingled with P. ginseng cultivars, indicating that both species have similar genetic backgrounds. P. ginseng cultivars were subdivided into three minor groups: an independent cultivar 'Chunpoong', a subgroup with three accessions including two cultivars, 'Gumpoong' and 'Yunpoong' and one landrace 'Hwangsook' and another subgroup with two accessions including one cultivar, 'Gopoong' and one landrace 'Jakyung'. Each primer pair produced 1 to 4 bands, indicating that the ginseng genome has a highly replicated paleopolyploid genome structure.

Morphological Characteristics of Ginseng Leaves in High-Temperature Injury Resistant and Susceptible Lines of Panax ginseng Meyer.

Plant leaf cuticle is related to the prevention of moisture loss, transpiration, and diffusion of light reflection. The purpose of this study was to examine the morphological characteristics of ginseng leaves in ginseng plants resistant and susceptible to high temperature injury (HTI) to be related with the leaf-burning. For the HTI resistant lines Yunpoong, high-temperature injury resistance (HTIR) 1, HTIR 2, and HTIR 3, and the HTI-susceptible line Chunpoong, the cuticle densities were 53.0%, 46.2%, 44.9%, 48.0%, and 17.0%; the adaxial leaf cuticle layers were 141.3, 119.7, 119.7, 159.4, and 85.0 nm in thickness; the abaxial leaf cuticle layers were 153.6, 165.8, 157.9, 199.6, and 119.4 nm in thickness; and the stomtal lengths were 21.7, 32.4, 29.4, 30.9, and 21.8 µm, respectively. All of these aspects suggest that HTI resistant lines have higher cuticle density, thicker adaxial and abaxial leaf cuticle layers, and longer of stomta length than the HTI-susceptible line, protecting leaves from moisture loss and excessive transpiration under high temperatures to be resistant against the leaf-burning.

Fingerprinting analysis of fresh ginseng roots of different ages using 1H-NMR spectroscopy and principal components analysis.

Fingerprinting analysis of fresh ginseng according to root age was performed using 1H-NMR spectroscopy and multivariate analysis techniques. Various peaks were detected in the aliphatic (0-3 ppm), sugar (3-6 ppm), and aromatic (6-9 ppm) regions of the 1H-NMR spectra of the water extracts of fresh ginseng root. The use of principal components (PCs) analysis (PCA) for metabolomic profiling allowed the large 1H-NMR data set obtained for various metabolites to be reduced to PC1, PC2, and PC3. Two dimensional score plots showed clear separations with these three components at different roots ages, and explained 89.6% of the total variance. Canonical discriminant analysis identified the ginseng roots at various ages from the NMR results with over 89.9% discrimination accuracy. These results indicate that the combination of 1H-NMR and PCA provides a very promising tool for the authentication and quality control of fresh ginseng roots at different ages.