Background : Angelica gigas, also called Dang Gui or Korean Angelica, is a major medicinal herb used in Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and China. A. gigas has many active constituents such as dercursin, decursinol angelate, nodakenetin, nodakenin, β-sisterol or α -pinene. But, there is no research on the gexpression of the genes related to saponin biosynthesis from A. gigas. In this study, we compared the expression of saponin biosynthesis related genes from various organs of A. gigas. Methods and Results : The reads of Angelica gigas mRNAs were produced using Illumina Hiseq 2000, and the reads were assembled to produce 113,597 contigs using CLC　Genomic Workbench. To select the saponin biosynthesis genes, assembled contigs were subjected to BLAST analysis at NCBI site. RNAs were extracted from five tissues, roots, stems, flowers, old leaves and young leaves of A. gigas. We produced total of 16 gene specific primers and used for RT-PCR. PCR conditions composed pre-denaturation at 95℃ for 3min, then 35 cycles of 95℃ for 30 sec, 57℃ for 30sec and 72℃ for 1min, and a final extension at 72℃ for 5min. Electrophoresis performed at 100 V, 30 min using 1.2% gel. Our experiment shows that A. gigas has several genes related to saponin biosynthesis and the genes were expressed from variety of organs. Conclusion : From the above results, we may suggest A. gigas genes related to the biosynthesis of saponins.

Background : Codonopsis is a flowering plants belong to the family Campanulaceae, and has many kinds of medicinal properties. As currently recognized, two other groups, Campanumoea and Leptocodon, are included in the Codonopsis. The enlarged genus Codonopsis is distributed in Eastern, Southern, Central, and Southeastern Asia. C. lanceolata, C. clematidea and C. pilosula has many kinds of medicinal properties and this plants are used as medicinal and edible plants. C. ovata and C. mollis are distributed in Pakistan Kashmir and Himalaya mountains at an altitude of about 3,000 m, and flowers bloom in July to August. Methods and Results : In this study, we analyzed the genetic diversity of 5 Codonopsis species using 8 SSR markers base on C. lancelolata genomic sequences. Samples were obtained from fresh leaves of 5 plants from each species and genomic DNA was extracted using CTAB method. PCR was performed in total 20μl reaction volume containing 20 ng of DNA template and 5 pmole of primers. PCR conditions composed pre-denaturation at 95℃ for 5 min, then 35 cycles of 95°C for 30 sec, 60°C for 30 sec and 72°C for 30 sec, and a final extension at 72℃ for 30 min. The amplified band sizes ranged from 74 to 301 bp and clearly showed single or doble bands in eletrophoresis. From the phylogenetic analysis, C. lanceolata was grouped together, but the others were not grouped together according to the species. Conclusion : We concluded that C. lanceolata cultivated in Korea is different from the other species, and the eight SSR markers used in this study are able to distinguish C. lanceolata from the other species.

Background : Codonopsis lanceolata is used as a natural medicine or vegetables. It originates in East Asia such as Korea, Japan and China. C. lanceolata roots contain various chemical compounds including saponins like Panax ginseng. Although C. lanceolata are cultivated in different regions of South Korea, no variety has been developed. Therefore, it is necessary to develop discriminating methods such as molecular markers in C. lanceolata species. Methods and Results : To find simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, we sequenced C. lanceolata genomic DNA using Illumina HiSeq 2000 System. A total of 250,455 putative SSR loci were obtained, and 26,334 non-redundant primers were designed to amplify these SSRs. Di-nucleotied repeats were the most abundant SSR reapeats, accounting for 89.53% (23,578) of primer designed SSRs. Tri-nucleotide, tetra-nucleotide and penta-nucleotide accounted for 8.44% (2,223), 1.3%, (348) 0.2% (55), respectively. Tri-, tetra-, and penta-nucleotide (total of 2,626 SSRs) were investigated in silico to identify polymorphism between individuals. Consequently, 573 SSRs showed polymorphism. Forty genomic SSR markers were tested in 16 C. lanceolata plants for determination of PCR amplification and polymorphism. From these primers, 27 (67.5%) amplified products and the average polymorphism information content (PIC) value was 0.52. Conclusion : We development 27 SSR markers from C. lanceolata using NGS, and it could be used for breeding of new varieties in the future.

Background : Angelica gigas is a monocarpic biennial or short lived perennial plant. A. gigas, also called Dang Gui or Korean Angelica, is a major medicinal herb used in Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and China. In Korea, we are using the roots of A. gigas, but, they are using Angelica sinensis in China and Angelica acutiloba in Japan to obtain many active constituents. The biggest problem in the using of A. gigas would be the confusion with A. acutiloba or A. sinensis. These three plants can't be distinguished by appearance. And the constituent ratios of the three plants are different. This confusion can cause an accident or the pharmaceutical effects do not meet the expectations. In this study, we developed chloroplast SSR markers that can distinguish A. gigas, A. acutiloba and A. sinensis. Methods and Results : We collected A. gigas, A. acutiloba and A. sinensis. and extrated DNA using CTAB method. The DNA was diluted to 10 ng/㎕ and kept -20℃. We designed the primer sets using CLC Main Workbench based on chloroplast DNA SSR region of A. gigas. PCR were performed on the three angelica plant samples (in 5 repeat). Conclusion : We made five primer sets from five SSR regions of A. gigas cpDNA. All of the primer sets amplified the amplicon effectively. Two of the 5 primer sets had polymorphism. We can distinguish A. gigas, A. acutiloba, and A. sinensis using the 2 primer sets