The article describes the life and career of Dmitry Danilovich Brezhnev, N. I. Vavilov’s colleague, scientist of worldwide renown, great organizer of science, who made an undeniable contribution to the development of N. I. Vavilov’s ideas on mobilization, study and use of the world's plant resources.

The article describes the way of life of N. I. Vavilov’s colleague Ekaterina Vladimirovna Ellady and her contribution to botanical systematics, geographical and phylogenetic study of worldwide diversity of cultivated and wild flax held in the collection of VIR.

Participation of scientists from VIR in a rally race through the territory with complex soil composition provided valuable contribution to the development of land use and applied geosciences.

Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), like common vetch (V. sativa L.), is one of the most widespread cultivated forage vetches. In Russia, hairy vetch is sown both in spring and winter planting seasons. V. villosa populations may contain spring, semi-spring, semi-winter and winter biotypes. Three hairy vetch varieties (Nezhnostebelnaya, Siverskaya 2 and Ukrainka) were studied in mono- and binary agrophytocoenosis with oat, rape and barley at spring sowing under the conditions of Leningrad Province of the Russian North-West in 2010-2012. Biotype composition of vetch variety populations was determined to identify adaptive biotypes. Some biological and agronomic characters were analysed. Comparative evaluation of hairy vetch variety populations was performed to test the role of agrophytocoenosis (and its phytocomponent) as a possible factor of biotype variability in vetch varieties and their biological and agronomic characters.

Morphology, nitrogen-fixing activity and seed productivity of the introduced wild long-rhizome yellow alfalfa (Medicago falcata L.) under exogenous treatment with microbial preparations and phytohormone (homobrassinolide) were studied in field experiments. It was revealed that growth activators increase seed productivity and nitrogen-fixing activity in the cultivated taproot alfalfa type and, on the whole, have no effect on metabolism in the long-rhizome morphotype plants. To solve the problem it is necessary to develop Rhizobium preparations increasing nitrogen-fixing activity of the long-rhizome alfalfa plants on the basis of natural isolates and the use of phytohormones with due regard to the peculiarities of the ontogenesis of the long-rhizome M. falcata morphotype.

Field studies of honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea L. s.l.) and material for investigation (91 herbarium accessions; 20 scion samples; and fruits for detailed morphological description, organoleptic and molecular analyses) have been collected in the north-eastern part of the area of honeysuckle distribution, in Kamchatka and Sakhalin regions. All coenopopulations have been characterized ecologically, geobotanically, and phytosociologically. Factors threatening natural coenopopulations have been estimated, and these data preconditioned recommendations for honeysuckle in situ conservation. Fruits of 20 Russian honeysuckle cultivars have been included in comparative molecular assessment together with fruits from natural ecotypes. As a result of AFLP analysis, all investigated material was divided into three groups: two groups include samples L. caerulea, collected in Kamchatka, and the majority of the investigated honeysuckle cultivated forms, while the third group unites only genotypes of the sakhalin plants.

Landraces of cultivated plants originated from the beginning of agriculture through selection from wild ecotypes and cultivated by farmers in their domestic region were investigated with the goal to conserve fragments of still existing fruit landraces, including restoration of variable countryside with scattered and roadside trees, wind-breaking and snow-catching functions including fruit consumption. Individual trees were identified, attributed to cultivars, localized by GPS and mapped in the Geobase Map of the Czech Republic. The inventory listed 388 fruits out of total number of 2866 accessions. It is a basis for searching lost and extinct materials. The database was analyzed for cultivars, regionality and their longevity by the length of registration. The best indigenous materials were proposed for in situ conservation mainly in the territory of National Parks and Protected Landscape Areas.

The genotoxicity and clastogenic effects of water samples from Lake Sevan and the rivers of its basin with the application of Trad-SF (stamen filaments) and Trad-MN (micronuclei in the tetrads of microspores) bioassays of Tradescantia (clone 02) were investigated. A significant increase in the level of recessive mutation events (RME) frequency and micronuclei (MN) in tetrads from the water samples from the Gavaraget and Dzknaget Rivers as compared with the reference and other studied samples was detected. High positive correlation between the RME and MN frequencies and the concentration of some chemical elements in the studied water samples (Si, Al, P, Mn, Fe, and Cu) were revealed. The obtained results show that Trad-SF and Trad-MN tests of Tradescantia (clone 02) can be used for ecotesting of natural aquatic ecosystems in Armenia.