This study was performed to identify optimal harvesting time of ginseng seeds and to examine the effect of GA3 treatment for improvement of seed stratification rate. Ginseng seeds harvested from Land race, Chunpoong and Yunpoong cultivar in July 20 were tested for stratification rate. It was shown that stratification rates of land race, Yunpoong and Chunpoong cultivar were 94.1%, 93.1%, and 82.6%, respectively. Seeds of Chunpoong cultivar harvested 10-15 days later showed a comparable stratification rate to that of Land race, indicating that late harvest of Chunpoong seeds is beneficial for the increase of stratification rate. The higher stratification rate was found in mature seeds (92.3%) than immature seeds (37.8%), both of which were harvested in July 20. Stratification rate of mature seeds harvested in July 15 was 87.5%, demonstrating optimal harvesting time of ginseng seeds with higher stratification rate is after mid-July. An exponential growth of endosperms of ginseng seeds was observed from early June to mid-June and then slow growth was observed. There was no obvious growth of embryos from fertilization to mid-August. After the this time, embryos quickly grew until late October. Thus, appropriate stratification control is essential during the period (from early September to late October) in order to optimize embryo growth and development. While no increase of stratification rate was observed in seeds treated with 50 ppm of GA3, significant increases were observed in seeds treated with 100 ppm of GA3. At this concentration of GA3, the stratification rate of Land race, Chunpoong and Yunpoong cultivar was 95.0%, 95.3%, and 96.5%, respectively.

The transcriptomes of four ginseng accessions such as Cheonryang (Korean ginseng cultivar), Yunpoong (Korean ginseng cultivar), G03080 (breeding line of Korean ginseng), and P. quinquefolius (American ginseng) was characterized. As a result of sequencing, total lengths of the reads in each sample were 156.42 Mb (Cheonryang cultivar), 161.95 Mb (Yunpoong cultivar), 165.07 Mb (G03080 breeding line), and 166.48 Mb (P. quinquefolius). Using a BLAST search against the Phytozome databases with an arbitrary expectation value of 1E-10, over 20,000 unigenes were functionally annotated and classified using DAVID software, and were found in response to external stress in the G03080 breeding line, as well as in the Cheonryang cultivar, which was associated with the ion binding term. Finally, unigenes related to transmembrane transporter activity were observed in Cheonryang and P. quinquefolius, which involves controlling osmotic pressure and turgor pressure within the cell. The expression patterns were analyzed to identify dehydrin family genes that were abundantly detected in the Cheonryang cultivar and the G03080 breeding line. In addition, the Yunpoong cultivar and P. quinquefolius accession had higher expression of heat shock proteins expressed in Ricinus communis. These results will be a valuable resource for understanding the structure and function of the ginseng transcriptomes.

This study was carried out to investigate the difference of the content of soil chemical components and growth characteristics in five years old ginseng affected by application of manure in paddy-converted field. As all livestock manure regardless of kinds increased along with the whole soil chemical component, including the pH and EC in 2008. Change in the EC of control plot was slightly increased but not exceeded 1 ds/m over the years. However, the changes in the EC of livestock manure regardless of kinds and amounts were highly increased and irregularly exceeded 1.5 ds/m in 2012. The 5 years old ginseng root fresh weight, treatment of fertilizing pig manure compost 4 ton per 10 areas (PMC 4t on/10a) and fowl manure compost 4 ton per 10 areas (FMC 4 ton/10a), were superior to the others. But there were no difference between PMC 4 ton/10a, FMC 4 ton/10a and control. The standing crop rate 39.6%, treatment of fertilizing cattle manure compost 4 ton per 10 areas (CMC 4 ton/10a), was best in all livestock manure. However that was relatively lower than control. Physiological disorder occurrence rates of livestock manure related with leaf and root of ginseng were also higher than that of control. If excessively using non-decomposed livestock manure, It would be caused physiological disorder in many ways. It is a big problem to be producing the quality ginseng. More research is needed to find out the economic and effective fertilizer.

The present study was investigated the effect of planting density on plant growth and yield of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer. Sowing density is one of the most important factors affecting yield. The value of roots have affected by shape, color, weight and degree of disease injury in ginseng. Also, it needed to minimize elapsed time for 5 years including pre-planting field management and cultivation period. We were conducted to evaluate that planting densities and varieties on the growth, yield and missing rate. The direct sowing was treated seeds density as a four levels (seeds; 72, 90, 120, 144) and 10 different varieties with 3 years old ginseng roots. Root weight was significantly affected by planting density and variety, but the number of lateral root and yield were affected by only planting density. Growth index was related to variety and planting density. Also, Root shape index was affected by both varieties and planting densities. Suitable planting density and variety were 120 plant per 1.62 m2 and Gopoong, respectively. Results showed that it was also a significant difference (p=5%) in variety of planting density on growth.

Korean ginseng (P. ginseng C. A. Meyer) is one of the most important medicinal plant in the world. Understanding genetic variability among the assortment of Korean ginseng is important for breeding. The aim of this study was to molecularly characterize Korean ginseng cultivar and breeding lines through the use of eight previously reported STS markers (MFGp183, MFGp130, MFGp110, UFGp74, UFGp163, MFGp108, MFGp81 and UFGp156). All STS markers produced interpretable electropherograms from 31 accessions consisting of 11 Korean ginseng cultivars and 20 breeding lines. When eight STS markers were combined, we identified to total 19 genetic patterns; in particular, nine cultivars (Chunpoong, Yunpoong, Gopoong, Gumpoong, Sunpoong, Sunone, Cheongseon, Sunhyang, Cheonryang) and 5 breeding lines (G08012, G04079, G04075, G08036, G04110) in ginseng samples can be discriminated from the others. Together with other available markers, these STS markers will contribute to the management of ginseng genetic resources and the protection of breeders' rights.

This study describes the identification of Panax species using mitochondrial consensus primers. Initially, a total of thirty primers were tested in ten Korean ginseng cultivars and two foreign Panax species, P. quinquefolius and P. notoginseng. In the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification results, three primers (cox1, nad1/2-3 and nad2/1-2) generated co-dominant polymorphic banding patterns discriminating Korean ginseng cultivars from P. quinquefolius and P. notoginseng. However, these primers could not generated polymorphisms among the Korean ginseng cultivars, and simply represented species-specific polymorphisms for P. quinquefolius and P. notoginseng. Primers PQ91 and PN418 were designed from the consensus sequence of nad1/2-3 region. Two banding patterns (A or B) were detected in PQ91. Korean ginseng cultivars and P. notoginseng shared the same banding pattern (A type) and P. quinquefolius was identified another banding pattern (B type). In the case of PN418, two banding patterns (A or B) were detected in the Korean ginseng cultivars and two foreign Panax species. Korean ginseng cultivars and P. quinquefolius shared the same banding pattern (A type) and P. notoginseng was identified another banding pattern (B type). The combination banding patterns of three Panax species, Korean ginseng cultivars (Panax ginseng C. A. Mey.), P. quinquefolius and P. notoginseng, was identified as 'AA', 'BA' and 'AB', respectively. Consequently, PQ91 and PN418 primer sets can be used to distinguish among Panax species.

본 연구는 인삼 기내에서 생산된 재분화 식물체의 토양 순화를 위해 순화과정을 단축하고 생존율을 높일 수 있는 방법을 개발하기 위하여 실시하였다. GA3를 0.4mg l-1로 9시간을 처리하였을 때 토양에서 생존율은 59.6%로 가장 높게 나타났으며, 그 다음이 1mg l-1에서 9시간을 처리하였 때 43.7%의 생존율을 나타냈다. 재분화 식물체의 뿌리길이가 4 cm 이상일 때는 48개체가 생존하여 생존율은 53.3%로 처리 중 가장 높게 나타났으며, 뿌리 무게는 4 g 이상일때는 46.7%가 생존하여 가장 높은 비율을 나타냈다. 4년생 때 지상부 생육 특성을 조사한 결과, 초장은 35.3 cm, 경장은 18.3 cm, 엽장은 12.1 cm, 엽폭은 4.8 cm로 이식 재배한 연풍의 생육 특성과 비교해 보면 재분화 식물체의 생육이 약간 떨어짐을 볼 수 있었다. 3년생 때 지하부 특성을 보면 근장은 15.3 cm, 동장은 4.5 cm, 동직경은 2.1 cm, 그리고 근중은 15.4 g으로 지하부도 지상부와 마찬가지로 대조구인 묘삼을 이식하여 재배한 처리구에 비하여 생육이 약간 떨어졌다.

FPS (farnesyl diphosphate synthase) plays an essential role in organ development in plants. However, FPS has not previously been identified as a key regulatory enzyme in triterpene biosynthesis. In order to investigate the effect of FPS on ginsenosides biosynthesis, we over-expressed FPS of Centella asiatica (CaFPS) in Panax giseng adventitious roots. PCR analysis showed the integrations of the CaFPS and hygromycin phosphotransferase genes and we ultimately selected three lines. The result of Southern blot analysis demonstrated the introduction of the CaFPS gene into genome of ginseng. In addition, the results of RT-PCR analysis revealed that CaFPS gene overexpression induced an accumulation of its transcription in the ginseng adventitious roots. To determine whether or not the overexpression of the CaFPS gene contributes to the downstream gene expression associated with triterpene biosynthesis, the level of mRNAs was analyzed by real-time PCR. The result showed that no differences were detected in any expression of all genes. To determine quantitatively the content of ginsenosides in transgenic ginseng adventitious roots, HPLC analysis was conducted. The content of total 7 ginsenosides was increased to 1.8, 1.4, and 1.7 times than that of the controls, respectively. This indicated that the overexpression of CaFPS in ginseng adventitious roots causes an increase in ginsenoside content, although down stream genes of FPS gene were suppressed by CaFPS overexpression.