This issue of the Vavilov Journal of Genetics and Breeding is composed of reports of top Russian breeders delivered at the scientific session of the RAS Department of Agricultural Sciences “Scientific support of the efficient development of crop breeding and seed production in the Russian Federation” held in Moscow on December 7, 2020.

The article describes the main stages and achievements of the breeding of winter bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the Non-Chernozem zone for more than a century. The beginning of breeding work was laid by D.L. Rudzinsky on the experimental field of the Moscow Agricultural Institute. Beginning from the 1940s, under the leadership of Academician N.V. Tsitsin, and then Prof. G.D. Lapchenko, the method of distinct hybridization with blue wheatgrass (Agropyron glaucum (Desf. ex DC.) Roem. & Schult.) was actively used. The resulting wheat-wheatgrass hybrids had an average winter hardiness, increased grain quality and productivity. Cultivar Zarya developed in the 1970s (by individual selection from the F₃ cross combination of cv. Mironovskaya 808 × line 126/65 (in the pedigree of this line, there is a wheat-wheatgrass hybrid PPG 599)) had a high yield and was widely used in further crosses. In the 1980s, Academician B.I. Sandukhadze achieved a significant increase in yield by using the method of intermittent backcrosses due to the producing of varieties with a new morphoecotype (cvs Inna, Pamyati Fedina, etc.), namely, winter-hardy, short stemmed (dwarf), and productive. Cultivar Moskovskaya 39 (registration in 1999) was referred to strong wheat, with a stable protein content of 15–16 %, gluten 30–35 %. Produced in the 2000s, cvs Moskovskaya 56, Nemchinovskaya 57, Galina, Nemchinovskaya 24, Nemchinovskaya 17, and Moskovskaya 40 have a high adaptability to the environment of the region; give a high yield and quality of grain. The area of crops of these cultivars in Russia occupies more than 2 million ha. The current trends in wheat breeding are indicated, the production yield of commercial cultivars of breeding by the Federal Research Center “Nemchinovka”over 12.0 tons per ha and the protein content in the grain up to 17 % are shown. As a result of succession, originality and application of the methodology of scientific breeding, the yield of winter bread wheat in the period from the beginning of the last century to the present has increased from 1.0 to 12.0 and more tons per ha.

In the Russian Far East, a highly profitable crop is soybean, which predominates in all farms’ crop rotation in the region. An increase in this crop production occurs here both by increasing the sown area and increasing its yield. Therefore, in scientific institutions, great attention is paid to breeding varieties that can produce high yields in conditions with limited thermal resources with adaptation to the extreme soil and climatic conditions of the region’s soybean growing zones. In 2020, 45 varieties developed by scientific institutions of the Far Eastern Federal District were introduced to the State Register of the Russian Federation and approved for use in production in code 12 region (Far Eastern), with the largest number of the entries coming from the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Soybeans. The share of cultivated areas in the Russian Far East occupied by domestic varieties was 63.7 %, the largest share of sown varieties – 48.9 % – belongs to the Federal Research Center All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Soybean. The most popular were the varieties of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Soybean, such as Alena, Kitrossa, Lydiya, Evgeniya, MK 100, Primorsky varieties (Musson, Primorskaya 4, Primorskaya 86, Primorskaya 96, Sphera) are in demand mainly in Primorsky Krai, and Khabarovsk varieties (Batya, Marinata) have an advantage in Khabarovsky Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Region. All varieties are not genetically modified and are created mainly by classical breeding methods. Breeders of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution,“Federal Research Center of Agrobiotechnology of the Far East named after A.K. Chaika” and biotechnologists carry out the selection of pairs for crossing using biotechnological methods to assess their polymorphism, instead of long-term selection for phenotypic features in the field. Evaluation of domestic and foreign varieties for disease resistance revealed a high degree of damage to foreign varieties by dangerous viral and fungal diseases. Together with Japanese scientists from the University of Niigata, the astragalus mosaic virus was detected on Canadian and Chinese varieties in Primorsky Krai and the Amur Region using DNA analysis. The carrier of this disease is soybean aphid (Aphis glycines).

The production of pedigree seeds is not only an important but also a cost-effective means of increasing the yield and efficiency of agriculture. The genetic potential of varieties can be unlocked only by choosing those adaptive to the soil and climatic conditions in a particular region, using modern tools for plant protection, and applying balanced mineral nutrition. These are the most important factors determining the performance. In the course of breeding and genetic work, the Federal Scientific Center of Legumes and Groat Crops (FSC LGC) has created new soybean varieties, whose high biological and economic potentials are combined with resistance to stress factors. Despite the close relationship between productivity and growing season duration, the highly productive and early-ripening (100–115 days) soybean varieties raised at FSC LGC can yield 2.5 to 3.5 t/ha, the grain having high contents of protein (37–42 %) and fat (18–22 %), depending on the climatic conditions in a particular year of cultivation. They are less temperature-sensitive than other domestic or foreign varieties. It is important that our soybean varieties are not genetically modified. New pea varieties created at FSC LGC in 2015–2020 differ in growing season duration and morphological features. They are adaptable to the soil and climatic conditions of a region, which ensures the maximum realization of their potential. The main factor in increasing yields and stabilizing the production of buckwheat and millet grain in the Russian Federation is the creation and adaption of new earlyripening and high-yielding varieties of the determinate type adapted to the specific natural and climatic conditions of different regions of Russia.

Modern sunflower breeding is significantly diversified due to the different needs of agricultural production. The breeding of sunflower varieties and hybrids is carried out at V.S. Pustovoit All-Russian Research Institute of Oil Crops (VNIIMK) in all areas in demand on the market and is based on fundamental biological research. In the field of breeding for faster maturing, the following commercial cultivars were obtained: very early maturing, cv. Skormas and the three-way hybrid Achilles, early maturing cvs. Varyag and Uspekh, medium maturing cvs. Amelie, Aris and Aurus. Within the framework of breeding for immunity, eight hybrids and one variety have been produced. So at the Don experimental station (Rostov region), productive hybrids were bred, resistant to the virulent broomrape of the G race due to the presence of the Or7 gene: ‘Gorstar’, ‘Gorfild’, ‘Grant’, ‘Status’, ‘Fogor’ and the three-way hybrid Nika. On the central experimental base, the following were obtained: the mid-early hybrid Typhoon and the earlymaturing variety Platonych with resistance to common races of downy mildew and a high oil content of achenes (up to 53 %) as well as the mid-early hybrid Tayzar, which is simultaneously resistant to virulent races of broomrape and to the causative agent of downy mildew. The early maturing large-fruited sunflower variety Belochka was included in the“Russian State Register of Selection Achievements…”, and the large-fruited varieties Karavan, Konditer and Kalibr are currently undergoing state tests. The breeding use of germplasm with genes for herbicide resistance wasaccompanied by their extensive genetic study. A practical recommendation for all three alleles of the ALS gene (Imr, CLHA-Plus, Sur) was the need to create homozygous hybrids for their reliable use in appropriate production systems. For Clearfield technology, the hybrids Imidzh, Arimi and Immi have been developed; for Clearfield Plus, the hybrid Klip; and for Express Sun (or SUMO), the hybrid Surus. Klip and Surus are mid-oleic. All newly developed fertile ornamental sunflower varieties – Aurelia, Fizalia, Zhemchuzhny, Rumyanets, Agat and Mazhor – were transferred for practical use to a sterile CMS RIG basis. Thus, new achievements have been attained across the entire spectrum of modern trends in sunflower breeding.

High efficiency of the cultivation of unfertilized sugar beet ovules and preparation of haploid regenerants (microclones) of pollinators – maintainers of О-type sterility and MS forms of the RMS 120 hybrid components has been shown. A technological method that accelerates the creation of new uniform starting material is proposed. It speeds up the breeding process two to threefold. The identification of haploid regenerants with sterile cytoplasm in initial populations is of great theoretical and practical importance for breeding, as it facilitates the production of homozygous lines with cytoplasmic male sterility and high-performance hybrids on sterile basis. As shown by molecular analysis, a single-nucleotide polymorphism never reported hitherto is present in the mitochondrial genome of the haploid plant regenerants. It allows identification of microclones as fertile and sterile forms. It has been found that DNA markers of the sugar beet mitochondrial genome belonging to the TR minisatellite family (TR1 and TR3) enable reliable enough identification of haploid microclonal plants as MSor O-type forms. Fragments of 1000 bp in length have been detected in monogenic forms in the analysis of 11 sugar beet plants cultured in vitro by PCR with the OP-S4 random RAPD primer. Testing of the OP-S4 marker’s being in the same linkage group as the genes responsible for expression of the economically valuable trait monogermity demonstrates its relative reliability. By the proposed method, dihaploid lines (DH) of the male-sterile form and the О-type sterility maintainer of the RMS 120 sugar beet hybrid have been obtained in in vitro culture. These lines are highly uniform in biomorphological traits, as proven under field conditions.

Plant breeding and seed production of new generation fodder crops is the groundwork for creating a fodder base for livestock production in sufficient quantities. The Federal Williams Research Center of Forage Production and Agroecology founded in 2018 based on of the All-Russia Williams Fodder Research Institute and other scientific institutions is the largest and most comprehensive center in the field of food production. It develops new techniques and methods for creating initial seed material based on a wide use of genetics, biotechnology, microbiology, immunology, ecology, biogeocenology, and cell selection. During the existence of the Fodder Research Institute and its experimental stations, up to 300 varieties of feed crops were created, which occupied leading positions in the production of fodder in meadows, pastures, and hayfields. Eighty-five modern varieties of fodder crops of the latest generation are widely used and zoned in all regions of Russia. However, the destroyed system of elite and commercial seed production does not allow these varieties to take their rightful place in fodder production, and the market still possesses a large share of non-varietal and mass scale reproduction seeds. In addition, imported seeds brought to the Russian market are often disguised as lawn varieties to reduce the cost and simplify their entry to the market. In this way, 107 varieties of winter ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), 47 varieties of cane fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.), 21 varieties of creeping clover (Trifolium repens L.), etc. appeared in Russia. In such circumstances, the attention of the Williams Center is focused on the development of techniques and methods for creating fundamentally new varieties based on its own research in genetics, biotechnology, immunology, and ecological selection. Much attention is paid to expanding the network of research stations throughout Russia in order to revive the system of elite seed growing, especially in the regions with the most favorable climate for growing seeds of particular crops. A seed production center was organized as a branch of the Williams Center at the end of 2020. In the future, it is planned to create a united coordinated interdepartmental complex for the breeding of fodder crops in accordance with the regional needs of animal husbandry.

The article considers the legislative and regulatory acts that specify the tasks in the implementation of breeding processes. The results of the creation, variety testing, patenting and introduction of grape varieties and clones into the State Register of the Russian Federation for 2010–2020 are presented. The article analyzes the relationship between the indicators of industrial development with the production volumes of planting material, the use of domestic varieties that are included in the State Register of the Russian Federation. The characteristic of ampelographic collections – the genetic resources of grapes – is given. A comparative analysis of many years’ worth of data on the assessment of the adaptive potential of domestic varieties and introduced varieties is presented. The article describes domestic varieties, from which premium wines are produced, which not only competes with European varieties, but also surpasses the organoleptic properties and biochemical parameters of grape must and wine material. The main problems hindering the wide demand for domestic varieties on the market, including a substantial amount of imported European varietal planting material, are described. The necessity of accelerating breeding processes is actualized, modern methods are identified, including those of generative and genomic selection, transgenic technologies, cellular, mutational, and clone selection, and priority areas in breeding are presented. The numerical and qualitative analyses of the composition of breeding scientists is given, the trends of increasing the number and qualitative composition of breeders, the influx of young people, the growing need for training qualified personnel are noted. The number of bachelor’s, master’s and post-graduate students specializing in viticulture in general and in selection in particular as well as the number of defended dissertation studies on grape breeding has been found to be insufficient. The main scientific and practical problems in the organization and implementation of breeding processes in ensuring the development of the industry are updated, including a low share of domestic varieties in the produced planting material and planting, the lack of a systemically implemented varietal and technological policy, the imperfection of the legal system for the protection of intellectual property, a low availability of instrumentation and analytical equipment for the implementation of breeding by modern methods.

It is possible to achieve the target indices of the Russian Doctrine of Food Security (self-sufficiency in fruits and berries should be at least 60 %) by combining the competencies of science and business. At present, hundreds of varieties of small fruit crops are included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements Admitted for Use. Domestic breeders have obtained substantial results; the share of their assortment is 79–100 %. Federal Research Center of Horticulture (Moscow) (101 pcs.), Federal Altai Research Center of Agrobiotechnology (Barnaul) (85 pcs.), Michurin Federal Research Center (Michurinsk) (42 pcs.) are the leaders in the number of created hybrids and varieties. Over the past five years, 133 new breeding achievements of traditional small fruit crops have been submitted to the State variety testing, the originators of which are research institutions, private companies and individuals. The creation of modern seed-breeding (nursery-breeding) centers (SBC) on the basis of leading specialized research institutions is expected to be the solution to the problems of modern breeding and nursery breeding and to give impetus to the development of domestic small fruit growing. The research programs of the SBC involve an integrated approach that combines the knowledge and capabilities of researchers from different disciplines, the concentration of a complex analytical instrument base in the Centers of collective use, the using of biotechnological and molecular genetic research, along with traditional methods of breeding. An analysis of the achievements in small fruit growing in research institutions under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation revealed a huge scientific potential (genetic collections, hybrid funds) for creating competitive commercial varieties and technologies for their cultivation by establishing plantations with certified planting material in accordance with international requirements. Information from literary sources indicates that one of the main criteria for the value of varieties is resistance to harmful viral diseases. The cultivation of such varieties will reduce the cost of producing planting material for small fruit crops of the highest quality categories. In the near future, the most relevant areas for the breeding of small fruit crops will be: breeding for resistance to the most harmful viruses, winter hardiness, increased transportability and long-term post-harvest storage of fruits, suitability for mechanized cultivation, high content of biologically active substances.

This paper presents the results on the breeding work carried out by the Subtropical Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Currently, the Centre’s breeders are doing a lot of work aimed at breeding new fine yielding cultivars of subtropical and flower crops that will be resistant to growing conditions; they include kaki persimmon, feijoa, mandarin, freesia, crown anemone, pelargonium and chrysanthemum. The sources of high-level priority traits in flower crops that are valuable for further breeding in order to improve decorative (colour, flower shape, inflorescence), economic and biological traits (flowering period, a large number of flowers in the inflorescence, storage period of cut flowers, disease resistance, high reproduction coefficient) were recorded. The aim of the research is to improve the subtropical and flower crops assortment. The objects of the research were 989 hybrid forms: 136 citrus crops, 56 persimmon, 36 feijoa, 38 tea plant, 11 pear, 24 hazel, 108 freesia, 398 crown anemone, 120 pelargonium and 62 chrysanthemum hybrids. New cultivars with a complex of valuable traits have been created as a result of the scientific work. Over the past five years, FRC SSC of RAS has created 50 new cultivars: 26 pelargonium, 15 anemone, 5 freesia, 2 chrysanthemum, 1 persimmon and 1 apple and submitted them to the State Cultivar Commission. The “State Register of Selection Achievements Authorized for Use for Production Purposes” has included 63 cultivars developed by FRC SSC RAS, including 26 pelargonium, 13 anemone, 9 chrysanthemum, 7 freesia, 4 hazel, 3 feijoa and 1 tea plant cultivars. 46 patents for breeding achievements have been obtained.

This review discusses the main methods of breeding material development, the current state, problems and prospects for medicinal and essential oil plants breeding. The relevance of this area has especially increased due to the sanctions, the resulting shortage of medicinal plants and their low quality, which does not meet the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. To produce a stable plant raw material base, it is necessary to actively develop a breeding process to create new highly productive varieties of medicinal plants resistant to biotic and abiotic environments. In breeding with the use of modern molecular biological methods, related species and generic complexes of the All-Russian Research Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (VILAR) collection can be involved, where there is extensive original genetic material of medicinal, essential oil, rare and endangered species. In the breeding of medicinal and essential oil crops, traditional methods of individual and individual-family selection, polyploidy, chemical mutagenesis and a combination of methods to obtain original breeding material are still promising. VILAR has created more than 90 varieties of medicinal and essential oil crops, most of which have been approved for use throughout the Russian Federation.

In this review, the authors considered the promising species of vegetable crops for introduction and breeding in the Russian Federation. An attempt was made to assess the possibilities of their breeding improvement from the standpoint of the presence of traits that limit large-scale production. Species that could potentially serve as sources of a high content of functional food ingredients (FFI) have been identified and characterized. For the successful introgression of these species in the Russian Federation, we proposed the methodological approaches including the assessment of the potential cold resistance of thermophilic crops in the mature male gametophyte in vitro (e. g., asparagus bean). The increase in the biodiversity of vegetable plants and improving of their nutritional value should be recognized as one of the main tasks, along with the growth of crop productivity. It is proposed to use the ratio of the total number of the registered cultivars of a particular crop to the number of years since the first cultivar of that crop has been included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements Admitted for Use as a measure of demand. It is advisable to formalize the trait“high content of FFI” in crops, taking as a basis, for example, a 2–4-fold excess of the content of any FFI or their complex in a cultivar over the crop’s standard (reference) value. Such varieties should be included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements Approved for Use as a separate list. The purpose of their separation in the State Register is to ensure the potential interest of investors and business structures in the sale of functional food on the market. The paper discusses in detail the most promising species of introduced vegetable crops from five families (Brassicaceae, Amaranthaceae, Solanaceae, Leguminosae, Cucurbitaceae). The following species are proposed as potential sources of high FPI content: Brassica oleracea ssp. oleracea, B. oleraceae var. alboglabra, B. rapa ssp. chinensis, B. rapa ssp. narinosa, B. rapa ssp. nipposinica, B. rapa ssp. rapa, B. uncea, Cochlearia officinalis, Lepidium sativum, Amaranthus caudatus, A. cruentus, A. hypochondriacus, A. dubius, A. tricolor, lividus, species in the genus Physalis L., Momordica charantia, Benincasa hispida, Cucumis metuliferus, Vigna unguiculata.

Agriculture in the Russian Federation is fundamental to the country’s economic performance, living standards, the wellbeing of people and state safety. Considerations relating to food security, prospects of and challenges before plant breeding in the Siberian Federal District (SFD), the largest agricultural area of the Russian Federation, are provided in the article. The agricultural area used in the SFD is about 50 million hectares and accounts for 13 % of the country’s gross grain production. The need for the introduction of modern molecular biological methods, bioengineering and IT technology is demonstrated and discussed. As Russia as a whole, Siberia is largely engaged in unpromising extensive farming practices, which rely on natural soil fertility, and this factor should be taken into account. Another issue is noncompliance with intensive farming technologies used for cultivating new-generation commercial cultivars. Although capital investments in plant breeding are the most cost effective investments in crop production, breeders’ efforts remain underfunded. The article explains the need for fundamental reform in this economic sector: the recognition of plant breeding as being a fundamental science; a fair increase in its funding; the development of a breeding strategy, nationally and regionally; the further expansion of the network of the Breeding Centers; the re-establishment and improvement of the universities’ departments specialized in plant breeding and seed production; having more state-funded places in the universities for training plant breeders to be able to maintain and cement the country’s advanced position in plant breeding and to develop new globally competitive next-generation cultivars of main crops. Should these issues be ignored, all the problems that have accumulated to date will lead to risks of long-term instability in this economic sector. The need for the careful preservation of continuity in plant breeders and plants being bred is stated. The regulatory functions of the state and agricultural science in plant breeding, plant industry and seed production are considered.