Word from the Editor-in-Chief.

As part of a comprehensive program for registering and preserving the gene pool of Russian varieties in the VIR genebank, initiated at the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources, nomenclatural standards were assigned to potato cultivars ‘Alâska’, ‘Argo’, ‘Bravo’, ‘Irbitskij’, ‘Legenda’, ‘Lûks’, ‘Terra’, and ‘Šah’, and a voucher specimen was prepared for pre-cultivar ‘Bagira’. All of them were bred at the Ural Federal Agrarian Research Centre (Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences). Nomenclatural standards of these cultivars are preserved in the Nomenclatural standard collection at the Herbarium of cultivated plants and their wild relatives and weeds (VIR Herbarium, WIR). For each of them, a genetic passport was developed using DNA preparations isolated from plant material donated by the cultivar author to the VIR herbarium. The genetic passport, which includes information on the allelic composition of eight chromosome-specific microsatellite loci, is supplemented by the molecular screening data with markers of 11 R-genes for resistance to pests, as well as the data on the types of cytoplasm. The author of cultivars also supplied VIR with samples of virus-free in vitro plants. Microplants of eight Ural cultivars and one pre-cultivar were genotyped using the same SSR markers and included in the VIR in vitro collection, and then in the cryopreservation program. Most of the accessions were characterized by a relatively high, above 39%, level of post-cryogenic regeneration. Frozen explants of the genotyped Ural cultivars (‘Alâska’, ‘Argo’, ‘Legenda’, ‘Terra’, and ‘Šah’) and pre-cultivar ‘Bagira’ were placed for long-term storage in the VIR Cryobank.

Shadbush is one of the underutilized berry crops. Originally, it was an ornamental crop, but now it is increasingly used as a food crop. Numerous species of shadbush belong to the genus Amelanchier Medik.; wild species grow in North America, Europe, as well as in Western and Eastern Asia, and each region has different species composition. The year of 1590 marked the beginning of introduction of wild shadbush species with the most valuable features to other countries. In the 19th century, the introduction of shadbush became most popular. In 1800, shadbush breeding was launched in Canada, and then in the USA. In 1937, the production of commercial varieties was established. At present, in Russia, the most productive work on introduction and breeding of shadbush is carried out in Michurinsk (All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Horticulture named after I.V. Michurin), Novosibirsk (Central Siberian Botanical Garden of SB RAS), and Moscow (N.V. Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden). Unfortunately, the assortment of shadbush varieties in Russia is still quite limited and is represented by only two varieties. In recent years, the development of methods of shadbush clonal micropropagation has been underway, which makes it possible to obtain planting material on an industrial scale and accelerate the reproduction of rare varieties.

June 21, 2023, marks the 75th anniversary of RAS Academician Nikolay Kazimirovich Yankovsky, an eminent specialist in the field of general and molecular genetics and biotechnology. Nikolay Kazimirovich has published more than 170 scientific papers, has nine patents, trained six Doctors and 19 Candidates of Science. He is a laureate of the USSR Council of Ministers Prize and several other awards. Nikolay Kazimirovich carries out extensive editorial work, being the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal “Genetics” and a member of editorial boards of a few other specialized periodicals. N.K. Yankovsky is also known as a major organizer in science; in 2006-2016 he held the position of Director of the Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and currently he is the Scientific Director of this Institute. Nikolay Kazimirovich carries out extensive educational work, being the author of dozens of popular scientific publications and presentations in the mass media. It is impossible to overestimate the contribution of N.K. Yankovsky into the work of the Russian genetic community in the rank of the first Vice-President of the Vavilov Society of Geneticists and Breeders, in which position he has always been and still is a generator of new ideas and an active fighter for the ideals of genetic science. Friends and associates – Russian geneticists and breeders, congratulate Nikolay Kazimirovich on his anniversary and wish him achieving new creative successes, grateful apprentices, enthusiasm and inexhaustible energy in solving large-scale challenges of genetics on a national and global scales.

The Second Scientific Forum “Genetic Resources of Russia” was held in St. Petersburg, June 26-28, 2023. Thе Forum comprised nine associated scientific conferences and conference schools dedicated to the establishment, formation, conservation, development, studying and utilization of biological (bioresource) collections as well as to the activities of bioresource centers, and a round table entitled “Statutory Legal Regulation and Standards for the Work with Bioresource Collections”. More than 700 researchers representing over a hundred scientific institutions and universities from Russia and other countries participated in the Forum. In total, more than 200 oral presentations were made during those events (including 16 talks at the Forum’s Plenary Session). The participants of the Forum events thoroughly discussed the results of the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for the Development of Genetic Technologies for 2019-2030 associated with the establishment and development of bioresource collections for research in the field of genetic technologies, the prospects for the promotion of this sector, and the regulatory legal framework in the sphere of ensuring conservation and development of biological (bioresource) collections, establishment and functioning of bioresource centers, and their sustainable and rational utilization in scientific research and development activities. The outcome of those discussions is presented in this publication in the form of the Forum’s Resolution. Upon reviewing the results of the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for the Development of Genetic Technologies for 2019-2030 pertaining to the establishment and development of bioresource collections for research in the field of genetic technologies, the Forum recognized them as successful. The Forum approved the draft of the legal act “On Bioresource Centers and Biological (Bioresource) Collections”, which is currently under consideration in the State Duma of the Russian Federation and emphasized the need for its soonest adoption.