Biomass and metabolite production via hairy root culture using different genotypes of Panax ginseng

Abstract Panax ginseng is an important medicinal plant containing many pharmacologically valuable ginsenosides, the biosynthesis of which is regulated by complex metabolic pathways. In vitro tissue culture is an alternative way to produce ginseng root biomass and metabolites. The hairy root production via transformation using root inducing plasmid (Ri plasmid) of Agrobacterium rhizogenes would be a useful metabolic engineering tool for P. ginseng. Here, we investigated the transformation efficiency and biomass production in five ginseng genotypes. Of these genotypes, the ‘Yunpoong’ cultivar, and the local landrace ‘Ganghwa’ had the highest transformation efficiencies of 66.11% and 65.00%, respectively. The biomass production of transgenic hairy roots was 1.5–2.1 times faster than that of non-transgenic adventitious roots without hormone supplementation. Various ginsenosides such as Rg1, Rf, Rh1, Rb1, Rb2, Rd, F2, and Rg3, were present at similar or higher levels in the hairy roots compared with the contents in adventitious roots. Further, the ginsenoside contents of cultivated roots were similar to those cultured in a bioreactor. Our results thus provide the basic information to metabolic engineering of ginseng for the in vitro production of ginsenosides.