With homology cloning approaches coupling with RACE (rapid-amplification of cDNA ends) techniques, the full-length coding sequence of pathogenesis-related protein PR10-1 with differential expression was cloned from the total RNA of the root of Panax notoginseng, and its function was explored furtherly. As a result, the longest 465 bp ORF (named as PnPR10-1 with the Accession No. KJ741402 in GenBank) was detected from the cloned sequence with full-length of cDNA of 863 bp. The corresponding peptide encoded consisted of 155 amino acids, contained some domains such as Bet-v-I, and showed high similarity with that from Panax ginseng by analysis of phylogenetic trees created from the alignments. Real-time quantitative PCR showed that the expression of PnPR10-1 gene was constitutive in different tissues of 1-3 year old plant, suggesting that it might be involved in growth, development, and secondary metabolism; yet it was up-regulated significantly with the infection of Fusarium oxysporum in root, suggesting that it might be involved in defense against many diseases including root rot in P. notoginseng.