Transcriptome profiling and comparative analysis of Panax ginseng adventitious roots – Accepted Manuscript

Abstract: Background: Panax ginseng Meyer is a traditional medicinal plant famous for its strong therapeutic effects and serves as an important herbal medicine. To understand and manipulate genes involved in secondary metabolic pathways including ginsenosides, transcriptome profiling of P. ginseng is essential.Methods: RNA-seq analysis of adventitious roots of two P. ginseng cultivars, Chunpoong (CP) and Cheongsun (CS), was performed using Illumina HiSeq platform. After transcript was assembled, expression profiling was performed.Results: The assemblies were generated from ∼85 and ∼77 million high-quality reads from CP and CS cultivars, respectively. A total of 35,527 and 27,716 transcripts were obtained from the CP and CS assemblies, respectively. Annotation of the transcriptomes showed that approximately 90% of the transcripts had significant matches in public databases. We identified several candidate genes involved in ginsenoside biosynthesis. In addition, a large number of transcripts (17%) with different GO designations were uniquely detected in adventitious roots compared to normal ginseng roots.Conclusion: This study will provide comprehensive insight into transcriptome of ginseng adventitious roots and a way for successful transcriptome analysis and profiling of resources plants with less genomics information. The transcriptome profiling data generated in this study are available in our newly created adventitious root transcriptome database (http://im-crop.snu.ac.kr/transdb/index.php) for public use.

Korean Red Ginseng attenuates anxiety-like behavior during ethanol withdrawal in rats – Accepted Manuscript

Abstract: Background: Korean Red Ginseng is known to have anti-anxiety properties. This study was conducted to investigate the anxiolytic effects of Korean Red Ginseng extract (KRGE) during ethanol withdrawal (EW) and the involvement of the mesoamygdaloid dopamine (DA) system in it.Methods: Rats were treated with 3 g/kg/day of ethanol for 28 days, and subjected to three days of withdrawal. During EW, KRGE (20 mg/kg/day or 60 mg/kg/day, p.o.) was given to rats once a day for three days. Thirty minutes after the final dose of KRGE, anxiety-like behavior was evaluated in an elevated plus maze (EPM), and plasma corticosterone (CORT) levels were determined by a radioimmunoassay (RIA). In addition, concentrations of DA and 3, 4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) were also measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).Results: The EPM test and RIA revealed KRGE inhibited anxiety-like behavior and the over secretion of plasma CORT during EW. Furthermore, the behavioral effect was blocked by a selective dopamine D2 receptor antagonist (eticlopride) but not by a selective dopamine D1 receptor antagonist (SCH23390). HPLC analyses showed KRGE reversed EW-induced decreases of DA and DOPAC in a dose-dependent way. Additionally, western blotting and real-time polymerase chain reaction assays showed KRGE prevented the EW-induced reductions in tyrosine hydroxylase protein expression in the CeA and tyrosine hydroxylase mRNA expression in the ventral tegmental area.Conclusions: These results suggest KRGE has anxiolytic effects during EW by improving the mesoamygdaloid DA system.

In vitro cytotoxic activity of ginseng leaves/stems extracts obtained by subcritical water extraction – Accepted Manuscript

Abstract: Ginseng leaves/stems extract produced by subcritical water (SW) extraction at high temperature (190°C) possessed higher cytotoxic activity against human cancer cell lines than ethanol extract. SW extraction can be a great candidate for extraction of functional substance from ginseng leaves/stems.