Characteristics of Hybrids between Jakyungjong and Hwangsukjong in Korean Ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer)

A large number of individual ginseng plants have been selected in the farmer's fields to develop new ginseng varieties with desirable traits since 1970s. Among them, Hwangsukjong with green stem and yellow berry was selected as a ginseng germplasm. The phenotype of Hwangsukjong is quite different from Jakyungjong that has violet stem and red berry and has been cultivated in most of ginseng fields. Therefore, Hwangsukjong was crossed with Jakyungjong to clarify the inheritance of stem color and then the characteristics of $F_1\;and\;F_2$ hybrids were investigated. $F_1$ hybrid plants were similar to Jakyungjong in most of aerial part characters and showed hybrid vigor in fresh weight of root and weight of 100 seeds. In $F_2$ generation, the stem color was segregated in a ratio of 3 violet to 1 green. From this result, it was elucidated that violet color was controlled by single dominant gene. In another experiment, DNA was extracted from parents (Jakyungjong and Hwangsukjong) and $F_1$ hybrid. For each primer evaluated, multiple band profile was produced comprising from one to five major bands plus a varying number of minor bands and amplified bands were detected among most primers. In case of UBC primer number 13, 17, 30, 31, and 43, band patterns of parents and $F_1$ hybrid were very similar, but the others were not. Especially, in {\sharp}1$, {\sharp}4$, and {\sharp}33$, specific band was produced in Hwangsukjong and $F_1$ hybrid while in {\sharp}6$, another specific band was produced in Jakyungjong and $F_1$ hybrid. Therefore, $F_1$ hybrid had all specific bands at these primers. So, these selective markers could be used for identification of characteristics of $F_2$ hybrids