Word from the Editor-in-Chief.

Over the past five years, unprecedented organizational and regulatory measures have been taken to enhance the establishment, formation, conservation, development, studying, and utilization of biological (bioresource) collections, as well as the establishment and operation of bioresource centers. A special federal law regulating relations in this sphere has been developed and adopted, and a regulatory network has been set up in the form of 16 bylaws: nine resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation and seven orders of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia. Four national centers for genetic resources have been organized by the decrees of the President of the Russian Federation. Eighty-one bioresource centers have emerged within scientific institutions. This article reviews these measures through the lens of genetic resources collections and highlights the role of such collections in the context of the interdisciplinary “5-Bio” cycle (Biodiversity – Bioresources – Bioinformatics – Biotechnology – Bioeconomics). Special attention is paid to the issues of biocollection data management, and the functional interaction between the modules developed for this purpose, based on the state information system “National Database of Genetic Information”, and an array of digital data on nucleotide sequences. The functional structure of the regulatory network in the sphere of biological (bioresource) collection establishment, formation, conservation, development, studying, and utilization, and the issues regulating access to collection materials are considered. It is asserted that the organizational and regulatory measures taken serve to achieve the strategic goals and priority objectives in the development of scientific and technological activities, put forth by the Strategy for Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation, and the goals of national development.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis and present the transformation of activities with plant genetic resource collections in the scientific, technological, organizational, and regulatory contexts from the creation of the first such collection in the world (the VIR collection/Vavilov collection) to the present day, when a unified National Collection of Plant Genetic Resources is being formed in Russia in accordance with current national legislation. The article identifies and analyzes four main stages (1894-1920, 1921-1991, 1992-2021, and 2022–present), the beginning of each period was marked by the emergence of new social challenges for the country and for science, which is reflected in research activities in the fields of creation, formation, conservation, development, study, and use of plant genetic resource collections. Each time, the transformations – organizational, regulatory, methodological – that arose in response to economic and technological incentives, ultimately contributed not only to internal development in the specified area but also contributed to the socio-economic development of this country and found a response in global science and practice.

Digital information on nucleotide sequences of genetic resource samples is internationally recognized as an important economic factor. Effective use of genetic information and the physical carriers of this information, biological materials, is possible with complete data for the sample identification, description, and evaluation. This complex information is both the result of the work of many generations of scientists and a valuable resource, enabling the most effective planning and implementation of modern high-tech research. The development of standard approaches to documenting plant genetic resources at various stages of scientific and methodological development has always been a priority in the work of the World collection of genetic resources of cultivated plants and their wild relatives (VIR Collection) – the oldest and one of the largest in the world in terms of the botanical, genetic, geographic, and ecological diversity. At the current stage of combining digital and genetic technologies, the topic of documenting information on plant genetic resource collection samples has been developed within the framework of the program of the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources, established on the basis of VIR by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation in 2022. The National Center's program includes a separate chapter, "Digitalization," the implementation of which meets the federal legislative requirement regarding plant genetic resources to maintain national catalogs of particularly valuable genetic resource samples, catalogs of biological (bioresource) collections, and a register of national collections of particularly valuable genetic resource samples and biological (bioresource) collections through the state information system in the field of genetic information, the "National Database of Genetic Information" (GIS NBGI). The purpose of this study is to analyze the experience of documenting comprehensive information on plant genetic resource accessions in the context of current challenges in the creation, formation, preservation, development, study, and use of this type of collections.

Cultivated plants are represented in various herbarium collections, however the number of herbariums specializing specifically in collecting the diversity of cultivated plants is very limited. The Herbarium of Cultivated Plants of the World, Their Wild Relatives, and Weeds of the N.I. Vavilov Federal Research Center of the All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR Herbarium, acronym WIR) is the oldest specialized herbarium of cultivated plants of global significance and the second largest (over 140,000 specimens, comprising approximately 380,000 herbarium sheets). Approximately 70% of the herbarium collection consists of unique specimens collected by the expeditions of N.I. Vavilov and his associates, or either earlier or later than these collecting missions. These specimens are valuable because they reflect the diversity of native cultivated plants from their regions of origin, or document the varieties bred in Russia. Many collected herbarium specimens of cultivated plants and their wild relatives cannot be replenished due to fundamental changes in the composition of the cultivated flora in places of its cultivation, climate change and anthropogenic intervention in the areas of natural distribution of crop wild relatives (CWR). The VIR herbarium is an invaluable tool for (1) monitoring the identity of viable accessions preserved in the Global Collection of Genetic Resources of Crop Plants and their Wild Relatives (VIR Collection), (2) analyzing the evolution and domestication of plants, (3) studying the history of agriculture, (4) systematizing cultivated plants and their wild relatives, (5) identifying varieties and protecting breeders’ intellectual rights (6) conserving rare and endangered CWR species, (7) monitoring weeds and invasive plants, (8) verifying research results, (9) documenting the history of scientific cooperation, and (10) organizing educational and awareness-raising events. All the areas of the use of this collection are illustrated in the article with specific examples. The need to document specimens whose genetic information is intended for placing in the State Information System “National Database of Genetic Information” is discussed. The experience with the VIR Herbarium served as a basis for the formation of the herbarium of the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources, established by a decree of the President of the Russian Federation on the premises of VIR in 2022. The Herbarium of the National Center is a network-distributed scientific herbarium collection, created from the VIR Herbarium holdings and the corresponding specialized herbarium collections of state institutions of the Russian Federation. The article presents the structure and current composition of the Herbarium of the National Center.

N. I. Vavilov and his colleagues laid the scientific and practical foundations for the collection and introduction of global plant resources in all their diversity. N. I. Vavilov’s theoretical research on the centers of origin of cultivated plants, the geographic localization of specific genotypes, and the law of homologous series in hereditary variability became the theoretical basis for the mobilization of plant genetic resources by both VIR staff and many other plant resource researchers. Until the mid-1980s, solutions to many international problems in the field of plant genetic resources were largely in the hands of scientists. Then, the increasing geopolitical and economic instability, the restructuring of global financial, logistical, and production systems, and the so-called "seed wars", had a negative impact on agrobiodiversity mobilization and the previously free exchange of plant genetic resources. In this century, the climate change and the combined effect of its consequences (the rate of temperature increase, landscape transformation, and the frequency of new types of cataclysms), are most pronounced in temperate and northern latitudes. Given the geographical position of the Russian Federation, special attention should be paid to the exploration of genetic resources within the country and in neighboring countries in collaboration with their representatives. The purpose of this review is to examine the collecting explorations of VIR during its different periods, starting from the Bureau of Applied Botany up to the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources. Six stages are distinguished in the history of collecting explorations: Stage I, 1908–1920; Stage II, 1921–1940; Stage III, 1941–1953; Stage IV, 1954–1990; Stage V, 1991–2022; and Stage VI, 2023–2025. Each stage is analyzed in respect of the methodological approaches used to study and mobilize the diversity of cultivated plants and their wild relatives, the main results, and the factors that influenced the organization of collecting explorations. In total, the institute's staff conducted 1,676 collecting missions. Territories corresponding to modern regions of the Russian Federation have been covered by the routes of 589 collecting missions (38% of the total), still the degree of exploration of plant genetic resources in this country remains insufficient and requires further organization of large-scale collecting missions in the Russian Federation and in neighboring countries. These efforts are already underway within the framework of the currently implemented Program of Development of the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources.

This publication briefly presents the strategy for developing scientific human resources in the field of creating, forming, preserving, developing, studying, and using plant genetic resource collections (Strategy further in the text). This Strategy is being implemented at the Federal Research Center, the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR), and has received new impetus within the framework of the Development Program for the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources, established by a decree of the President of the Russian Federation. The publication describes the main goals, tasks, directions, and tools for implementing the Strategy, and discusses non-financial incentives for attracting and retaining young scientists in this field, including mentoring, the presence of a scientific school within the organization, opportunities to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams, etc. Particular attention is paid to the scientific school at VIR. Specific examples of the Strategy's implementation are provided.

In 2024, the Federal Law “On Bioresource Centers and Biological (Bioresource) Collections and on Amendments to Article 29 of the Federal Law “On the Animal World” (No. 428-FZ of November 30, 2024) was adopted. It legally defined the concepts of the biological (bioresource) collection, bioresource center, and national collection of highly valuable accessions of genetic resources at the national level. The Law’s conceptual apparatus comprised 21 clauses. We hereby propose to expand the conceptual apparatus in the area of the establishment, formation, conservation, development, studying, and utilization of plant genetic resource collections (one of the types of collections specified in Article 13 of the Law). Some of the proposed definitions are universal and suitable for other types of collections. The conceptual apparatus was based on the experience with the VIR collection (the oldest collection of genetic resources in the world) and, as part of further promoting those activities, on the management of the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources, instituted within VIR’s premises by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation in 2022. This article substantiates the proposed conceptual apparatus and supports it with illustrative examples. A special emphasis is placed on the clarification of concepts related to the value of accessions and the importance of structuring the collection to effectively meet current scientific, technological, and/or educational needs.

The Fourth scientific forum "Genetic Resources of Russia" was held in St. Petersburg from May 12-15, 2026, at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and under the auspices of the Vavilov Society of Geneticists and Breeders. The Forum included six plenary sessions and roundtables, as well as two parallel scientific events and poster sessions. A meeting of the Scientific Council of the Division of Biological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences on biological (bioresource) collections was also held in the framwework of the Forum. More than 300 researchers from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, Tyumen, Ufa, Yakutsk, Petrozavodsk, Kursk, Yalta, Saratov, Krasnoyarsk, Sochi, Minsk, and other cities participated in the Forum. Over the course of four days, scientists from 29 regions of Russia, as well as the Republic of Belarus, presented more than a hundred oral reports to the scientific community, covering a wide range of topics – from genetic resources management technologies to their role in active longevity and bioeconomics. The Forum events included detailed discussions of research results and topical issues in the following areas: biodiversity conservation, genetic resources for active longevity, genetic resources for the bioeconomy, legal and ethical issues related to working with biological collections, training personnel for working with biological collections, and herbarium and museum genomics. The results of these discussions are presented in this publication as a Forum resolution.