ginseng-unique dominant band (Pg-specific marker) and the SSP-PQ-030-F2 and pgcpir 030 R primer pair for amplifying a P. quinquefolius-unique dominant band (Pq-specific marker; Fig. 3B,C). These two primer sets reproducibly produced species-specific unique bands. Many different products made from P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius are sold in Chinese ginseng markets ( Fig. 4A). We purchased various forms of primary processed ginseng, such as dried root slices, dried flowers, flakes, dried ginseng, and powder, in which the original species was labeled as American ginseng (P. quinquefolius) or Korean ginseng (P. ginseng). Results using the codominant marker pgcpir 035 and the species-specific

dominant marker sets were in agreement

with regard to genotype and also coincided with the species names denoted on the product labels, suggesting that both markers are credible for evaluation of species AZD2281 ( Fig. 4B,C). However, some products gave rise to bands for both species-specific markers, suggesting that Korean and American ginseng might be mixed during manufacturing or harvesting in some products (data not shown). Polymorphism of CIS is rarely identified among accessions in the same species [20], [24], [32] and [33], although a few find more CIS markers polymorphic in the same species were reported for Allium cepa, such as markers for identification of cytoplasmic male sterile genotypes among various onion accessions [34] and [35]. Therefore, although it is unlikely, we cannot preclude the possibility that an unrecognized variation among American ginseng accessions in the target regions might coincide with the region in Korean ginseng by chance. Inspection of more large collections and regular monitoring will be necessary to address this possibility. The above results

show that the codominant pgcpir 035 DNA marker and species-specific dominant marker set can be successfully applied to identify the original species from fresh roots and various processed ginseng products. Codominant markers have been utilized to identify heterozygosity in individuals and mixing of samples in other species. We tested our markers for the detection of mixtures of the two ginseng species because intentional or unintentional mixing Cyclin-dependent kinase 3 of the species could be common in the ginseng market, as our preliminary results suggested for the Chinese market. Therefore, we used both markers on samples of mixed DNA or tissues that included P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius in various ratios ( Fig. 5). As expected, the codominant pgcpir 035 marker gave rise to various intensities of both bands that coincided with the mixing ratio. Mixtures of dried root slices containing <10% of the second species could be clearly identified using the codominant pgcpir 035 DNA marker ( Fig. 5). In addition to the species-unique bands, an additional band (* in Fig. 5) was always observed for the mixed samples.