Background : Platycodon grandiflorum is a perennial plant and a member of Camanulaceae family. Since ancient times, they have been using P. grandiflorum as an important medicinal plant in Korea. Platycodin D is the most abundant saponin derived from P. grandiflorum and pharmacologically active component. UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are important enzymes in the saponin biosynthesis. UGT is a glycosyltransferase and act on the final step of the secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Methods and Results : We tried to identify UGT genes related to saponin biosynthesis of P. grandiflorum through RNA-seq analysis. The sequencing was performed using Illumina Hi-Seq platform after cDNA library preparation. The produced reads were assembled using CLC Genomics Workbench software (CLC Bio, Inc.). We obtained 122,663 contigs and found 137 putative UGT genes. Familes of UGT71, UGT73, and UGT74 were selected as putative saponin biosynthesis related gene families using phylogenetic relationship analysis. qPCR condition about UGT73 is preheating 94℃ 180 sec, denaturation 94℃ 60 sec, annealing 53℃ 60 sec, extension 72℃ 90 sec, final extension 72℃ 600 sec, 45 cycles repeated. Conclusion : The results in this study could help to find the UGTs related to saponin biosynthesis pathway of P. grandiflorum.

Background : Astragalus membranaceus is one of the most widely used traditional medicinal herbs in Korea. Studies on the genomic of A. membranaceus resources have not been carried out so far. The present study was carried out to discriminate A. membranaceus based on genetic diversity using genomic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Methods and Results : We collected 5 A. membranaceus lines: Asung, Poongsung, Am-Jecheon, Am-Sancheong, and Am-China. One hundred mg of fresh leaves were used for genomic DNA extraction using the DNeasy plant DNA isolation kit (Qiagen GmbH, Hilden, Germany). 450,449 contigs were searched for 147,766 SSR candidate loci in this study using the MicroSAtellite identification tool (MISA). We selected 949 A. membranaceus genomic SSR markers that were showed variation for the five collections in silico screening with CLC genomics workbench program. The genetic diversity of all A. membranaceus resources was analyzed using 17 SSR markers employing the DNA fragment analysis method. Based on the genetic diversity analysis, these lines were classified into four distinct groups. Conclusion : These findings could be used for further research on cultivar development using molecular breeding techniques and for conservation of the genetic diversity of A. membranaceus. Furthermore, the markers could be used for marker-assisted selection for crop breeding.