The article deals with the first results of reclamation of degraded pasture lands in dry steppe environments. Field experiments have been developed and carried out to improve degraded pastures using an assortment of forage grasses of the legume family in Mikhailovsky District of the Altai Territory. Optimal sowing time for legumes has been determined. Species most adapted to drought have been identified.

Cryopreservation of 20 potato breading cultivars was carried out using an original modification of the DV-Biotech droplet vitrification method. The post-cryogenic regeneration frequency of the apical buds was significantly (p <0.05) higher than the axillary buds of microplants. A significant effect of the genotype on the level of post-cryogenic regeneration was registered.

The results of comparative evaluation of productivity are presented for 24 spring barley cultivars of various genotypes from VIR’s collection with regard to the climate conditions of their cultivation. In the dry steppe zone of Volgograd Province considerable differences have been observed in the productivity and yield components depending on climate factors and genotypes. Five accessions with high adaptability ratios have been identified as well as several cultivar accessions with high 1000 grain weight manifested in different years of growing.

Analyzed environmental correlations between economically valuable traits of two varieties of peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.) of different origin - ‘Krasnodarec 14’ and ‘Tashkentskij 32’. The study was conducted in the North of the Astrakhan region on the basis of Prikaspiiskii nauchno-issledovatel'skiiinstitut aridnogo zemledeliya (PNIIAZ) in the North of the Astrakhan area for 6 years. Identified correlations, describing the particular samples. The study showed that the sample from Uzbekistan is better adapted to the conditions of the Astrakhan region.

Belarusian Polesia is a favorable region for successful introduction of the studied varieties of northern highbush blueberry. In the area of the trials the amount of positive temperatures and the length of the growing period are sufficient for the introduced plants to complete their full growing cycle.

Maikop Experiment Station of VIR holds a unique apple-tree collection of Malus orientalis (Uglitz.) Juz., currently containing 105 forms from various areas of the Caucasus. It has a great potential for supplying breeders with diverse sources of valuable traits, including high productivity, disease resistance, late flowering, and other qualities. In addition to the wild forms, of great interest are also the local Caucasian varieties sharing many biological and economic characteristics with M. orientalis. A brief description of selected accessions possessing a set of valuable traits for breeding is presented.

Yield structure elements of four productive accessions have been studied in the competitive variety testing nursery at Arkhangelsk Research Institute of Agriculture. Correlation analysis has been carried out between productivity, growing season, and yield structure elements. Priority elements of yield structure in the Extreme North environments are: productive tillering, 1000 grain weight, and ear length. An important factor is the duration of the growing season which correlates directly with productivity.

In the article the data of comparative studies of ‘Kharkovskaya 46’ecological variants which have been cultivated for a long time in Ukraine and in Altai, as well as ‘Altaika’ selected from this variety are presented. The effect of natural selection in the variety transformation at the long term cultivation under definite natural and climatic environments was demonstrated.

The cherry collection maintained at Pavlovsk Experimental station of VIR has been studied since 1967 in the context of the dynamics of newly acquired accessions. The main goal was to identify sources of the highest winter hardiness, frost tolerance and resistance to harmful diseases, such as cherry leaf spot and brown rot of the fruit, as well as other biological and economic traits valuable for breeders, such as self-fertility or large fruit size. Many years of research have resulted in identifying genotypes with different levels of field resistance in the years with average and epiphytotic type of disease development, and with the best indices of biological and economic traits.

A sample of 131 sunflower lines from VIR genetic collection which differed for the ability to suppression of the CMS phenotype was studied using molecular markers specific for the CMS PET1 associated mitochondrial locus orfH522 and Rf1 nuclear gene, and also for CAPS-markers developed on the bases of single nucleotide polymorphism of RFL-PPR genes homologs. With the use of hybridological analysis a tight linkage of HRG01 and HRG02 marker fragments with the Rf1 gene controlling pollen fertility restoration trait was confirmed. The allelic variants of the RFL-PPR genes sequences were associated with the allelic state of the Rf1 locus. However, the CAPS marker elaborated for the QHL12D20 fragment showed independent inheritance from pollen fertility restoration trait in the F2 of the hybrid VIR116xVIR740.

Ultra-early maturity of the Chinese barley landraces k-15881 (Hordeum vulgare L. var. coeleste L.) and k-15882 (var. nudipyramidatum Koern.) from VIR’s barley collection is controlled by three identical recessive genes. This homozygous genotype determines the period from shoot emergence to heading =32 days, with two recessives genes =36 days, and with one =40 days. One dominant allele of the gene contributes approximately 4 days to the earliness. New breeding source material with different times of heading to develop adaptable cultivars may be obtained by crossing these forms with later maturing commercial cultivars.

The proposed classification system of the species Linum usitatissimum L. is based on the study of morphological features and the results of analyzing hybrids from diallelic crosses among all supposed flax taxa including primitive forms and the wild species L. angustifolium Huds. Genetic similarity between taxa was judged by their morphological affinity, crossability both among themselves and with L. angustifolium as a supposed ancestor of cultivated flax, and viability of Fi reported earlier (Kutuzova, 20ll). Research results show that fiber, intermediate and crown flax forms are varieties of cultivated flax, not subspecies, as N. M. Chernomorskaya and A. K. Stankevich (1987) claimed. New flax varieties have been described: L. usitatissimum subsp. usitatissimum var. nanum Kutuz. var. nova, dwarf flax from Ethiopia differing from other crown forms in that its F1 from the cross with L. angustifolium is practically unviable, and L. usitatissimum subsp. bienne (Mill.) Stankev. var. colchicum Kutuz. var. nova. - Colchian flax.

During recent years the harmfulness of greenbug for rice crops has significantly increased. Laboratory experiments were conducted to study insect resistance of 200 accessions from the collection of the Donskoy Agrarian Scientific Center. The overwhelming majority of the studied forms were heterogeneous in their resistance. Twelve forms (5.5%) with the resistance score 2.2-3.0 were identified. The accessions NSH-1 (Hungary), ‘Musa Karem’ (Iran) and Zlatyi х Strelets (Russia) do not contain susceptible components and can be recommended as sources of aphid resistance for breeding rice varieties.

The article is dedicated to two memorable dates - the l70th anniversary of the birth of I. P. Borodin, and the 130th anniversary of the birth of N. I. Vavilov.