Development of DNA Markers to Construct Genetic Map in Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer

In eastern Asia, Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer) has been used as medicinal plant for a long time and also currently becomes one of the most famous medicinal plants in the world, owing to its excellent pharmacological effects. However, in spite of its useful value, genetic information of this plant is not enough to understand its genome in the present. As a part of Ginseng Genome Project, we are investigating DNA markers to construct high resolution genetic map of ginseng. We have been produced large amount of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and whole genome shotgun sequences from Chunpoong (430Gb) and Yunpoong (49Gb) cultivars using next generation sequencing (NGS) technology, and generated assembled sequences. Using these sequences, we were inspecting SSR motifs and putative SNP sites which can be used as molecular DNA markers. Total 1,728 primer pairs were designed in the flanking regions of polymorphic regions and then used for parental screening to detect polymorphism. As a result, 163 polymorphic markers were found. Afterward, these DNA markers were further analyzed to investigate mendelian segregation ratio using F₂ population from cross between Chunpoong and Yunpoong cultivar. Among 163 markers, only 65 produced unambiguous genotyping results, because remaining markers generated complex multi-bands. The DNA markers developed in this study will be used to construct genetic map, which can be useful for researchers and breeders as valuable genetic resource. This work was supported by Next-Generation BioGreen21 Program (No.PJ008202), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.