Microsatellite Analysis of <i>Panax ginseng</i> Natural Populations in Russia

Abstract

Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer is an endangered species in Russia. To restore this species, effective protective measures, including the reintroduction into favorable habitats, must be worked out considering the specificity of genetic structure of ginseng populations. One hundred and thirtynine P. ginseng plants were collected from the forests of nine administrative areas of Primorsky Territory of Russia and transferred to a collection nursery for further investigation. Microsatellite markers were used to study the genetic diversity and the genetic structure of ginseng populations. For populations studied with SSR, the number of observed alleles was ranging from 15 to 25, allelic richness from 1.83 to 3.04, polymorphic loci from 62.5% to 87.7%, observed heterozygosity from 0.410 to 0.512 (an average of 0.453) and expected heterozygosity from 0.304 to 0.479, with an average of 0.393. The values of the inbreeding coefficient within populations (Fis) ranged from −0.447 to 0.056, and their average value was −0.296. Genetic differentiation among populations was significant (F st = 0.115) but an isolation-by-distance pattern was not detected. UPGMA and MStree confirmed the presence of genetic structure within P. ginseng and visualized genetic relationships of populations with similar pattern. STRUCTURE analysis revealed the genetic admixture between different ginseng populations. It was established with SSR markers that P. ginseng still preserves substantial genetic resources although all populations are largely exhausted. Because ginseng populations are significantly differentiated all of them should be restored. Considering the admixture of ginseng populations it would be advisable to apply the individual assignment test to verify the content of indigenous populations and to identify the "true" population plants to serve as stock material for reintroduction.

Molecular Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Ginseng Germplasm in RDA-Genebank: Implications for Breeding and Conservation

“…It describes the proportion of heterozygosis expected under the Hardy-Weinberg (HW) equilibrium [47]. Previous studies have confirmed the excess heterozygosity in their ginseng populations [7,12,28,48]. Indeed, the present study also showed excess heterozygosity in these ginseng accessions ( Table 1).…”

“…Results of the present study showed a similar number of alleles (56) and average number of alleles (3.29) to results of Choi et al [28] (number of alleles = 51; average number of alleles = 3.0), while genetic diversity (0.490) in the present study was higher than (0.398) in the previous study. Reunova et al [12] have reported similar results (average number of alleles: 2.49; expected heterozygosity (He): 0.453) in 139 individual ginseng plants using 11 SSR primers. Otherwise, Bang et al [7] have reported a higher average number of alleles (4.3) and He (0.627) in 17 ginseng accessions using 8 SSR markers.…”

“…Genetic variability is critical for a species to adapt to environmental changes and survive in the long term [11]. Knowledge of genetic diversity within a population and among populations is important for conservation management, especially for identifying genetically unique structural units within a species and determining populations that need protection [12].…”

Phylogenomics and barcoding ofPanax: toward the identification of ginseng species

“…Whole genome data have also been used to design microsatellites for species identification, but these have found limited application [18, 48–52]. Extensive population genetic studies have been done only on P. quinquefolius [53–59] and P. ginseng [60, 61] due to their major economic importance.…”

Development of highly transferable microsatellites forPanax ginseng(Araliaceae) using whole‐genome data

“…In this regard, as codominant markers with high mutation rates (Jarne and Lagoda, 1996), nuclear microsatellites might provide novel insights into the polyploidy of Panax and domestication of P. ginseng . In previous studies, other microsatellites have been developed (Kim et al, 2007; Yang et al, 2008; Ahn et al, 2009; Van Dan et al, 2010; Choi et al, 2011; Reunova et al, 2014). Nevertheless, most of these studies developed microsatellites based on traditional Sanger sequencing, and the transferability of most of these microsatellites to congeneric species remains unknown.…”