Ginseng Genomes of 287 Lines Resequenced, Identifying 2 Glycosyltransferases That Drive Ginsenoside Diversity

Researchers including those at the Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, resequenced the genomes of 287 ginseng (Panax ginseng) lines and analyzed the content of 169 ginsenosides, presenting the genetic basis of domestication and of active-compound diversity. The paper was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Five groups divided by region and fruit color

Population genetic analysis divided the ginseng lines into 5 groups according to geographic distribution and fruit color. Selective sweep analysis showed signs that triterpene biosynthesis genes, as well as genes related to environmental adaptation and growth, were selected during domestication. The ginsenoside composition was also found to differ between groups.

Metabolite genome-wide association analysis (mGWAS) turned up 12,676 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with ginsenosides. Based on this, the team found two glycosyltransferases, PgUXT and PgURT, and verified their functions. They attach xylose and rhamnose, respectively, and affected the accumulation of more than half of the ginsenosides in the population. Because the genotype distributions of the two enzymes line up with the ginsenoside differences between groups, the researchers named them candidate regulators of the key branch point in ginsenoside diversification. They also presented an attempt to predict each plant's ginsenoside content by feeding the identified genetic variants into a machine learning model.

This study concerns genome and metabolome analysis and enzyme function verification, and it did not address the effects of ginsenosides in the human body. The geographic range of the lines analyzed and whether the findings apply to ginseng grown in Korea need to be confirmed separately in the original paper.