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Among more than 30 viruses infecting strawberry, aphid-transmitted viruses including Strawberry mild yellow edge virus (SMYEV), Strawberry mottle virus (SMoV), Strawberry crinkle virus (SCV), and Strawberry vein banding virus (SVBV) have been considered as the most economically important viruses of strawberry in the world. To determine the incidence of these four viruses in major Korean strawberry cultivars, field surveys were conducted in major production areas during 2018–2019. In our surveys, SMYEV and SMoV were detected with low infection rates of 0.7% and 1.3%, respectively, whereas SCV and SVBV were not detected. No obvious symptoms were observed in the strawberry plants infected by SMYEV or SMoV. Since no sequences of SMoV Korean isolates have been reported, we initially determined nucleotide sequence of the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of seven SMoV isolates obtained during the surveys. The 3' UTR sequences (782 nt) of seven Korean isolates were phylogenetically compared with those of the previously reported SMoV isolates. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that most Korean isolates are closely related to Canadian isolates and only little evolutionary differentiation occurred among the Koreans isolates. This might be due to the low incidence of SMoV in strawberry in Korea.

A disease, supposedly caused by a virus, was observed from Insam (Panax ginseng) fields of Punggi in year 2006. It has long believed to be a physiological disorder. However, the incidence of the disease has increased every year. When several samples were observed under electron microscope, filamentous virus-like particles were observed. The nucleotide sequences of the virus were analyzed by RT-PCR with specific primer sets derived from the results of DNA chip. The results indicated that the disease was caused by Watermelon mosaic virus (WMV). It revealed that the result of the biological assay by the virus was different from that of WMV previously found in other crops. Therefore, this is the first report that WMV causes the disease in P. ginseng and the virus is named to be WMV-Insam.

Recent studies have reported that the aerial parts of ginseng contain various saponins, which have anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-obesity properties similar to those of ginseng root. However, the leaf extracts of Korean ginseng have not yet been investigated. In this study, we demonstrate the anti-obesity effects of green leaf and dried leaf extracts (GL and DL, respectively) of ginseng in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese rats. The administration of GL and DL to HFD-induced obese rats significantly decreased body weight (by 96.5% and 96.7%, respectively), and epididymal and abdominal adipose tissue mass. Furthermore, DL inhibited the adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 adipocytes through regulation of the expression of key adipogenic regulators, such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-γ and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP)-α. In contrast, GL had little effect on the adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 adipocytes but greatly increased the protein expression of PPARγ compared with that in untreated cells. These results were not consistent with an anti-obesity effect in the animal model, which suggested that the anti-obesity effect of GL in vivo resulted from specific factors released by other organs, or from increased energy expenditure. To our knowledge, these findings are the first evidence for the anti-obesity effects of the leaf extracts of Korean ginseng in vivo.

In this study, the major agronomic traits were investigated and RAPD technique was applied for the analysis of the genetic relations between the native ginsengs collected from Poonggi and Geumsan provinces in Korea. The main morphological traits were measured for a total of 54 collections of native ginseng from two areas based on UPOV standard. A total of 58 collections consisting of twenty-one native ginsengs collections from Poonggi area, twenty-nine collections from Geumsan area and four varieties of P. quinquefolium, P. japonicum, Chunpoong and Hwangsuk as controls were analyzed and clustered by RAPD. The results indicated that 01-9, 01-35 and 01-44 collections from Poonggi area were grouped into Geumsan area, while 332001, 332002 and 332003 collections from Geumsan area were grouped into Poonggi area. On comparison to the similarity of Poonggi collections (73-95%), the Geumsan collections showed 65-86% similarity in the population. Thus, the cluster should be applied according to the number of stem, number of leaves per stem and leaflet shape on the regionally native ginseng collections. The fourteen primers such as OPA02, OPA07, OPC08, OPD11, OPD20 and so on, will be used to select the native ginseng in the future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]