Hairy root culture of ginseng is industrially prospected because the cultivation period of ginseng is relatively long. In this study, the effect of medium concentration and sucrose concentration on hairy root culture of ginseng was evaluated. The optimization of ginseng hairy roots transformed by Agrobacterium rhizogene were performed liquid medium. The MS(Murashinge & Skoog basal medium) concentration was selected with 1/2 strength MS and the optimal sucrose concentration was determined at 2-3%(w/v). At the optimum culture condition, The yield (the ratio of weight of grown hairy root cultures to weight of fresh ginseng hairy roots) and production rate of ginseng root were 19.42 times and 5.73 g/l-day. The major ginsenosides were Rb group, Re and Rg1. The produced total ginsenoside content in the solid medium was 9.87 (mg/g) and increased 1.34 times in the liquid medium (13.23 mg/g). In solid culture, the contents of ginsenosides Rb, Re and Rg1 were 2.14, 3.65 and 1.87 mg/g, respectively. In liquid culture, the contents of ginsenosides Rb, Re and Rg1 were 3.54, 4.12 and 2.63 mg/g, respectively.

인삼의 생장에서 염류의 집적은 우량 인삼의 생산에 많은 장애요인이 되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 순계 분리된 인삼의 우수 계통으로부터 NaCl 처리에 따른 생장율 조사와 ginsenoside의 생산에 미치는 영향을 조사하였다. 선발된 모상근(KGHR-8)으로부터 ginsenosides의 함량에 미치는 NaCl의 최적 농도를 조사하기 위하여 30일간 배양한 결과 NaCl의 농도가 증가함에 따라 모상근의 생장은 감소하였지만, total ginsenoside의 함량은 0.24M NaCl 처리구에서 높은 증가를 가져왔으며 특히 광을 조사하여 배양한 결과 높게 검출되었다. 0.24 M NaCl 농도로 광상태하에서 함량은 61.7% 증가하는 양상을 나타내었다. (Table 1). 또한 모상근의 생장을 최적 상태로 설정하기 위해 two step culture 방법을 조사한 결과, 0.05M, 0.1M NaCl 처리시 모상근의 생장율은 각각 약 62%, 76% 감소한 반면, ginsenoside의 함량은 29%, 48% 각각 향상되었다. 모상근은 방어기작의 일환으로 NaCl을 elicitor로 인지하고 2차대사산물인 사포닌의 생산에 영향을 미치는 것으로 확인되었다.

To investigate effects on the growth and ginsenosides accumulation in ginseng hairy root, potassium phosphate was supplemented with 1.25, 2.5, and 5.0 mM concentration in 1/2 MS medium, respectively. Potassium phosphate supplement was increased the biomass and ginsenosides accumulation when it was dose at the concentration of 1.25 mM. And the growth rate of hairy root in the light condition was higher than in dark condition. The highest contents and productivity of ginsenosides were observed at the supplement of 1.25 mM potassium phosphate at the 7th day after the culture onset. Ginseng hairy root cultured in 20 L bioreactor supplemented with 1.25 mM KH2PO4 was increased the growth with 1,609 g (F·W) and ginsenosides content with 11.09 mg than those in control.

To investigate the effect of culture conditions on growth and ginsenosides accumulation, we cultured the ginseng hairy root under three different media, white light or ultra-violet irradiation. The MS/B5 medium containning MS basal salt and B5 vitamin was good for the growth and ginsenoside accumulation. The light during the culture period of ginseng hairy root was irradiated. The growth was abundant in the ginseng hairy root cultured in dark. But the ginsenosides accumulation was higher than in the ginseng hairy root cultured in the light irradiation. When the ginseng hairy root was cultured in 20 L bioreactor, the ginsenosides accumulation was observed at 34% higher than the hairy root cultured in dark. UV irradiated the ginseng hairy root during the culture period. The long time irradiation of UV was caused decreasing the growth of ginseng hairy root, but the accumulation of ginsenosidess was increased as to the irradiated time.

Hairy roots were induced from Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer) root explants and studied for their gene expression. A total of 3,000 ESTs (expressed sequence tags) from ginseng hairy root were determined and about 2,700 ESTs have a length of readable sequence, which result in 1,352 unique ESTs sequences. The 879 ESTs showed significant similarities to known nucleotide or amino acid sequences in other plant species, which were divided into eleven categories depending upon gene function. The remaining 473 sequences showed no significant matches, which are likely to be transcripts or to be matched to other organisms. The results indicated that the analysis of the ginseng hairy root ESTs by partial sequencing of random cDNA clones may be an efficient approach to isolate genes that are functional in ginseng root in a large scale. Our extensive EST analysis of genes expressed in ginseng hairy root not only contributes to the understanding of the dynamics of genome expression patterns in root organ but also adds data to the repertoire of all genomic genes.