Development of Low-cot DNA Probe for Fingerprinting Asia and North American Ginseng

Abstract

Panax is one of the most medicinally important genera in the Orient, and almost every species of the genus has been used as a source of medicine. Since the quality and quantity of the gingsenosides affect the pharmacological activities of ginseng, HPLC analysis of gingsenosides has been used to characterize Asia and North American ginseng. Recent advancement in molecular biology suggests that DNA fingerprinting assay can be used as an assay to differentiate the Asia and North American ginseng. We first used microsatellite probes, (CAC)5, (CA)12, (GATA)4, (GACA)4, and found they are not suitable due to the low abundance in the ginseng genome. We then used a novel approach of using low-cot DNA which contains mainly repetitive sequences from the reassociation of the sheared and denatured genomic DNA (500-2,000 bp) as a DNA probe. When low-cot DNA was labeled and used as a probe in DNA fingerprinting assay, clear distinct DNA profiles can be generated when genomic DNA of P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius were cut with Dra I, Rsa I, Hinf I, and Taq I enzymes. In summary, we demonstrated a quick and novel approach of developing a DNA probe for population genetic study of ginseng.