Variety origin authentication of Panax ginseng C.A. Mey. and industrial ginseng products using SNP-based allele-specific PCR method

Abstract

Accurate identification of variety origin of Panax ginseng is quite necessary not only for variety conservation but also for the quality control of ginseng intermediate and terminal products. However, DNA degradation during the manufacturing processes and the low intra-specific polymorphism within P. ginseng lead to botanical origin authentication of industrial ginseng products at the variety level quite difficult. In this study, a multiple allele-specific PCR system was established based on two ‘Huangguo’ variety-specific SNPs that were respectively exploited from chloroplast ccsA and rpoC2 genes. The multiple allele-specific PCR method produced DNA amplicons of longer than 200 bp from seriously degraded samples and could detect 1 % of intentional adulteration of ‘Hongguo’ variety down to 0.01 ng level of genomic DNA. Furthermore, the developed real time allele-specific PCR enabled high-throughput genotyping of ‘Huangguo’ from local ginseng populations. This study provided a uniform method for variety origin authenticity control through the P. ginseng industrial chain and therefore can be used to maintain the high quality of industrial P. ginseng products.