Evaluation of genetic variation of morphological and clubroot-resistance traits of radish and metabonomic analysis of clubroot-resistant cultivar

•First evaluation of genetic diversity of radish resources based on agronomic traits and clubroot disease resistance. More extensive genetic variation in quantitative traits than in quality indexes in radish and the response of radish to clubroot disease may be a dominate indicator in evaluation of radish varieties were seen.•We verified clubroot disease resistance of resistant genotype on the metabolic level. Untargeted metabolomic study confirmed the clubroot resistance of “DHBC”.•Plamodiophora brassicae infection caused significant down-regulation of ginsenosides and other substances. In which, ginsenosides, a kind of precious anticancer chemical usually isolated from Panax plants were found in radish.