First description of crown gall disease on ginseng

In March of 2003, tumors (galls) were observed on ginseng seedling roots in ginseng seedbeds at Yeoju, Gyeonggi province, Korea. Symptoms were spherical or galls with about 0.5-1.0 cm in diameter formed on the upper through middle parts of the primary roots. Bacterial isolates obtained from the root galls were Gram-negative, rod-shaped with peritrichous; flagella, aerobic, not forming yellow or orange colonies on nutrient glucose agar, yeast extract-dextrose CaCO₃ agar and nutrient-broth yeast extract agar, non-fluorescent on King's B agar, and non-spore forming, which were identical to characteristics of the genus Agrobacterium. They were identified as Agrobacterium tumefaciens with 0.732-0.993 similarities in 100% probability by the Biolog analyses. The 16S rRNA gene partial sequences of the six isolates tested (Genbank Accession EF486308~EF486313) were 100% homologous to those of other A. tumefaciens strains (GenBank accession AF501343, AY701900, AY701898, AY701899). The above results confirmed that this bacterium is A. tumefaciens. Pathogenicity of the bacteria was proved by the inoculation test on carrot root discs and tomato seedlings. This is the first description of A. tumefaciens causing root gall in ginseng seedling. The disease occurred locally and sparsely, but considering its appearances in seedbeds suggests that the ginseng root gall may become a threat to ginseng in Korea.