PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES

ACTIVITIES IN RUSSIA

N.I.VAVILOV INSTITUT (VIR)

St.-Petersburg, Russia

www.vir.nw.ru

A. ARTEMYEVA, S. ALEXANYAN akme11@yandex.ru

N.I. Vavilov

All-Russian Institute

of Plant Industry

HQ is situated in Saint-Petersburg. The

main task - conservation and utilization of

crop diversity and wild relatives for food

and agriculture

Bureau of Applied Botany 1894

Staff : 352 employed,184

scientists (31 Dr.Hab., 101 Dr.)

1842 collecting missions

in 110 countries

One of greatest gene banks in the

world

Nikolay Vavilov

(1887-1943)

the great plant hunter

and collector of plant

genetic resourсes

«... to increase agricultural production and to provide humankind with more food»

The fundamental objectives of the Institute’s scientific

activities are as follows:

• to collect PGR both within and outside the country in order to

accumulate specific and varietal diversity of cultivated plants and

their wild relatives in the Institute’s gene bank;

• to preserve accessions of the world collection in viable conditions

and to provide for the long-term storage of them;

• to study world-wide plant genetic diversity with the goal of

identifying promising materials for breeding and donors of most

important commercial traits required for breeding of new cultivars

and hybrids in different regions of Russia;

• to supply the breeding centres and all users with initial genetic

material for practical breeding or scientific use.

Centers of origin of cultivated plants

VIR collecting missions (1908–2012)

77 85

43

6

75

Total: 286

VIR collecting missions in former USSR

(1908-2012)

457

272 561

101

144

Total: 1556

VIR collection of PGR: over 323 thousand germplasm accessions

of 155 botanical families, 376 genera, 2,169 species

Perennial crops include 22750 accessions

Collecting missions of VIR

Dynamics of VIR collection increasing

(1901–2011)

302 30000

250000

168700

118203

184300

317300

350000

323948

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

1901 1917 1940 1945 1950 1970 1980 1990 2006

VIR

GLOBAL STATUS OF VIR

EX SITU PGR COLLECTIONS

Crops

Total

number of

accessions

worldwide

Major holders

(number of accessions)

Wheat

Barley

Kidney beans

Maize

Soybean

Sorghum

Chickpea

Potato

Lentil

788,654

486,724

268,369

261,584

176,400

168,550

69,736

29,576

27,424

CIMMYT (99,000), USA (43,285), VIR (42,101)

Canada (41,360), USA (26,019), …VIR (20,700)

CIAT (41,069) USA (11,501), …VIR (9,274)

India (25,000), VIR (14,704), USA (14,091)

China (20,300), USA (18,000), VIR (6,740)

ICRISAT (35,184), USA (18,971), VIR (9,892)

ICRISAT (17,244), ICARDA (9,974), … VIR (2,901)

VIR (8,692), CIP (7,100), USA (6,900)

ICARDA (7,911), VIR (3,418), USA (2,259)

The VIR’s collections include the following PGR:

• wild species – relatives of cultivated plants including weedy

plants (the most important ones from the centers of origin of

cultivated plants);

• landraces, especially from the countries covering the initial

centers of origin of cultivated plants, and from the regions with

extreme environmental conditions;

• cultivars and breeding lines combining a complex of

commercially valuable characters and biological properties;

• rare botanical forms, mutants, new species of agricultural crops,

vanishing taxa;

• new forms, sources and donors developed in course of genetic

experiments by means of cell and gene engineering.

Functional structure of VIR

Genebank

General Director

Professor Dr.

N.I.Dzyubenko Scientific Secretary Dr. N.P.Loskutova

Vicе Directors Dr. E.I.Gaevskaya

Prof.Dr. V.I.Burenin

Dr. S.M.Alexanyan

O.V.Gorokhov

I.S.Bakhusheva

Departments

of Plant

Genetic

Resources

Experimental

Methodical

Laboratories

Experimental

Stations

and

Branches

Administrative

Keep

House

Department

Department

of

Scientific

Organization

Scientific and

Dissertation Defense

Councils

Department of

Foreign Relations

Dr. S.M.Alexanyan

Financial Economic and

Accounts Department

I.S.Bakusheva

Staff Department

O.Yu. Temyakovskaya

Composition of VIR collection of PGR

Crops Amount of accessions

Wheat, Aegilops, Triticale 51580

Barley, Oat, Rye 36549

Sorghum, Maize, Millet etc. 48529

Industrial & oil 27970

Fodder & grasses 31366

Leguminous 46317

Potato 8692

Vegetables 49971

Fruits, grape & berries 22750

Total: 323724

Vavilov concept of study of biodiversity

Biotechnology

Technological

evaluation

Biochemistry

Meteorology

Seeds study

Theretical

introduction

Botany

Genetics

Plant physiology

Phytopathology Eco genetics

Organization of collection (identification, passport and

evaluation data)

Theoretical basis of plant breeding

Plant

genetic

resources

Different kinds

of germplasm

conservation

in VIR

VIR National Seed Storage (Kuban station)

1

13

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 11

22 23 24 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 14

274123

accessions

Long-term and short-term storage in VIR-Centre

VIR Department

VIR-Centre

Short-term

(+4С)

Short-term

(-10С)

Long-term

(-10С)

Wheat, Aegilops, Triticale 14419 7469 8827

Barley, Oat, Rye 14538 9176 12529

Sorghum, Maize, Millet etc. 25684 7971 7321

Leguminous 31828 14220 7954

Vegetables 18645 11191 10858

Industrial & oil 14599 16164 8162

Fodder & grasses 5810 17530 7769

Potato - 2314 834

Fruits, grape & berries - 403 221

Seed storage - - 864

Total in short-term storage 211961

Total in long-term storage 65339

Total 277300

In vitro regeneration of collections Solanum, Rubus,

Cerasus, Fragaria, Allium – 818 accessions

Kryo-conservation – pollen 464 acc., part of stem – 114 acc.

VIR experimental stations

Dagestan

Volgograd

Astrakhan

Pavlovsk

Polar

Ekaterinino

Majkop

Pushkin

Far East

Kuban

“Red star”

Adler

Тюменский

Кинельский

Торжокский

Волгоградский

Прикаспийский

Буденновский

Кабардино-

Балкарский

Уральский

Чеченский Новосибирский

Якутский

Белорусский

Пензенский Бурятский

Барнаульский

Пятигорский

VIR small stations in a structure of other Institutes

Актюбинский

Multiplication and regeneration

The accessions of collections are sown for regeneration

regularly at VIR experimental stations. Criteria for regeneration of

accessions stored in the National Seed Storage and short-term

storage in VIR-Centre is germination less than 50%.

The accessions

are regenerated

in isolated

plots, isolated

houses, cabins,

under

individual

isolated bags.

Houses in

Majkop station (number of plants 30-

40, pollination by

microfamilies of

honey bees.

Characterization and evaluation

According N.I.Vavilov concept of initial material for breeding all

the accessions have been characterized and evaluated for many

morphological, biological and agronomic traits at several

experimental stations in the different ecologo-geographical zones

of Russia for three years using the standartized research methods.

The scientists of VIR study more than 15000 accessions per

year.

Utilization

N.I.Vavilov Institute publishes the “Reference catalogues” of

studied accessions.

Results of studies of genetic potential of cultivated crops and their

wild relatives have been processed into “Cultivated flora” and

monographs, including new data of phylogeny, taxonomy,

genetics, cytology, biochemistry, molecular biology, physiology,

immunity.

As a result of primary evaluation every year around 1000 new

sources for breeding have been selected. VIR specialists and

breeders from the breeding centres are always in close contact.

More than 2500 commercial cultivars of agricultural crops have

been created in Russia using material from the VIR collection.

In Russian registered list of cultivars permitted for growing in

Russia there are 412 cultivars created by VIR scientists.

From 1990 21 issues of «Passports of

donors» were published, where there is

information about 545 donors, including 193

donors of resistance to diseases

ВИР

Distribution of VIR accessions

(2007-2012)

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Total

Breeding centers (new acc.) 684 2909 2466 2330 840 2286 11515

Breeding centers (sources) 1260 1703 2243 2413 1960 2446 12025

Breeding centers (donors) 229 131 119 251 346 253 1329

Breeding centers

(collection) 3455 4806 4069 4877 4670 3070 24947

Other Institutes 6757 4787 5363 4148 3757 2255 27067

Nord-West 1835 1621 1006 1281 1160 5444

TOTAL in Russia: 12385 16171 15881 15025 12854 11470 83786

Foreign Genebanks and

Institutes 6741 2531 8225 7070 4202 2355 31124

Total 19126 21913 24106 22095 17056 13825

49971 accessions

27 families, 145 genera, 475 species

5,5% - wild species and primitive forms,

34% - landraces,

49% - breeding cultivars,

11,5% - mutants, lines, hybrids

Department of Vegetable and Cucurbit crops

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

Europe

(total)

VIR IPK CGN Great Britain

Brassica

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

Вся Европа ВИР IPK Италия Франция

Lycopersicon

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

Europe

(total)

VIR IPK Spain Turkey

Cucurbitaceae

Composition of world-wide vegetable collections Crop Amount of accessions Curators

Total including:

base catalogue temporary catalogue

Brassicas 3191 2271 920 А.М. Artemyeva

Tomato 7530 6430 1100 I.A.Khrapalova

Cucumber 4175 2510 1665 T.N.Kozhanova

Allium crops 3000 2614 386 V.V.Shumilina

Pepper, eggplant 2590 2090 500 I.V.Gashkova

Carrot and others 6788 2395 4393 T.V.Khmelinskaya

Beet 2726 2337 389 V.I.Burenin

Swede, turnip 779 709 70 -"-

Lettuce, dill, spinach 3008 1969 1039 V.A.Bortnikov

Water-melon 3100 2700 400 I.V.Gashkova

Rare cucurbits 655 564 91 -"-

Melon 4120 3200 920 -"-

Pumpkin, squash 2558 2209 349 T.M.Piskunova

Minor crops 5751 2573 3178 O.A.Zvereva

Total: 49971 34571 15400

Bio-morphological composition

of vegetable and cucurbit collections

Biological characters Amount of

accessions %

Self-pollinated 10110 20,2

Wind-pollinated 29990 59,7

Insect-pollinated 10038 20,1

Annual crops 27563 55,0

Biannual crops 13856 27,7

Perennial crops 8719 17,3

Microbiotics 11862 23,7

Mezobiotics 16167 32,4

Macrobiotics 21745 43,9

Core-collections

Trait collections

Genetic collections

DFFS (Diversity Fixed Foundation Set)

Different types of collections

Main goals of evaluation

• Ecologo-geographical

• Biochemical composition

• Resistance to diseases

• DNA fingerprinting

• QTL analysis

• Association mapping

The most important specific characters are evaluated:

for root crops ─ resistance to bolting and diseases;

beet ─ monogermicity and male sterility;

cucumber ─ parthenocarpy, limited lateral branching and

resistance to root rot;

pumpkin ─ cold resistance and bush habitus;

dill ─ high content of aromatic oil;

lettuce ─ bolting resistance;

cabbage and carrot ─ biochemical composition.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Cultivar types of Chinese cabbage

Asco

rbic

acid

, m

g/1

00g

The content of ascorbic acid among 18 cultivar types of Chinese cabbage:

1 – Dunganskaya, 2 – Mana, 3 – Shirona, 4 – Hiroshimana, 5 – Shantung,

6 – Siao, 7 – Nagasaki, 8 – Chirimen, 9 – Chosen, 10 – Kashin, 11 – Chee-Foo,

12 – Matsushima, 13 – Hotoren, 14 – Kaga, 15 – Aichi, 16 – Nozaki, 17 – Granat,

18 – Da-zin-kou

9%

6%

19%

2%

22% 5%

36%

1% 0% 0% 0% 0%

38%

9% 0% 0% 1% 8%

35%

9% 0% 0% 0% 0% 11%

5%

11%

3% 1%

16%

9%

12%

17%

1%

7%

7%

Amino acids

валин

аланин

серин

лейцин

глицин

треонин

оксопролин

аспартат

глутамат

аспарагин

глутамин

лизин

линия 3

линия 2

линия 1

0%

100%

0% 0% 0%

0%

73%

12%

12% 3%

1%

31%

34%

28%

6%

Phenolic compounds (в % от суммы)

никотиновая

хинная

феруловая

синаповая

токоферол

0% 0% 0% 0% 16%

0% 1%

36%

47%

0% 0%

0% 0% 4 % 1% 0%

41%

34%

20%

14%

1%

37%

0%

48%

0%

Sugars арабиноза

рибоза

люксоза

ксилоза

фруктоза

сорбоза

галактоза

манноза

глюкоза

рутиноза

раффиноза

17%

0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 1% 1% 0% 0%

50%

0% 1% 0% 0% 0%

28%

0% 2% 0% 0% 0%

2% 0% 0%

20%

0% 0%

74%

1%

4% 0% 2% 1%

81%

0% 0% 0% 2% Organic acids

Biochemical compounds in Brassica rapa L.

VIR accessions of B.rapa,

differentiators for Хсс Species

R genes

Races

6 1 1 4 3 5

Just Right turnip B. rapa Rxcc4A + + + - + +

Tokyo Cross B. rapa Rxcc4B + + + - + +

Seven Top Green B. rapa Rxcc4C + + + - + +

Miracle B. oleracea Rxcc3 + + + + - +

Florida Broad leaf B. juncea Rxcc1 + - - - - +

Cobra B. napus Rxcc4A + + + - + +

37824 (935) B. napus + + + - + +

371171 B. rapa + - - - + +

Chosen, к-207, Japan B. rapa + + + - + +

Local, к-63, China B. rapa + + + + - -

Ta-gu-tsai, к-129, China B. rapa R - - - - - -

Round Shantung, к-112, Japan B. rapa + + + - + +

Aichi, к-131, Japan B. rapa + - - + + +

Local, к-108, China B. rapa R - - - - - -

Kiriba Santo, к-210, Japan B. rapa + + + - + +

Dak-se, к-57, Korea B. rapa + + + + + +

Khasinbechu, к-247, Korea B. rapa + + + + + +

Len-sin-zon, к-122, China B. rapa + + + - - -

Dukre, vr.к-733, Korea B. rapa + - - - + +

Kasin, к-132, Japan B. rapa + + + - - -

Resistance to black rot and leaf spot (Xanthomonas campestris Pam. (Dow.). pv.campestris and X.c.pv.raphani)

Genetic diversity and

intraspecific

phylogenetic

relationships of

Brassica rapa L. crops

based on microsatellite

analysis

The first cluster included

generally leafy vegetable

crops from East Asia, the

second one – turnip and all

oilseed crops.

Leafy vegetable

accessions were

clusterized in two clusters

of Chinese cabbage and

separate clusters of pak-

choi and mizuna according

botanical division.

A01 A02 A03 A04 A05 A06 A07 A08 09 A10

Total results of QTL analysis of phenological, morphological,

immunological in Brassica rapa L.

Bolting time + traits of plant sizes Traits of plant sizes

4 3 6 1 Oв Я

DH30

DH38

Resistance

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

mean start bolting mean total bolting mean total flowering

Plants without marker P8-195

Plants with marker P8-195

Association studies

Trait Closest

linked maker

Linkage group and

position (cM)

Average value

marker present marker absent

Late start of

bolting, days BC89-195* A06: 119.2 137.31±26.83 51.19±4.53

Late total bolting,

days BC89-195* A06: 119.2 160.68±26.55 71.58±6.51

Late total

flowering, days BC89-195* A06: 119.2 170.31±27.33 81.07±6.67

The significance of the differences was tested by parametric (ANOVA) and nonparametric (Kruskal Wallace) tests.

Trait Closest linked

maker

Linkage group

and position

(cM)

Average value

marker present marker absent

β-carotene

content, mg/100 g

BOT1_3_M_CGT

-109 ND 4.46±0.45 2.88±0.19

Chlorophylls a+b

content, mg/100 g BC65-189 A04: 102.3 120.56±14.16 81.15±4.58

Glucosinolates

content, mg/100g

BOT1-2_M_CAC-

122 ND 10.89±1.31 20.37±4.40

Resistance level

to Хсс1 (number

of resistant

plants)

BOT1_3_M_CCT

-205 ND 65.60±18.79 16.50±10.50

Resistance level

to Хсс3

BOT1_2_E_ACA-

266 ND 60.10±9.37 24.28±10.71

Resistance level

to Хсс5 Br384-295 A04: 38.96 79.33±10.40 33.86±7.03

Association studies

VIR vegetable breeding 37 new cultivars were created from 2001

Red beet with monogermicity

Valenta

Bordo odnosemiannaya

Virovskaya odnosemiannaya

Small radish

Flamingo pink

Pumpkin

Tselebnaya Volshebnaya

kareta

Squash

Izumrudnyj

Negritionok

Buratino

Solnyshko

Zontik

Cucumber

Lettuce Balet

Spinach Variag

Dill Anna

Breeding of ornamental kales

Breeding lines

Crossing between kales and cabbages

Х

Afrodita

Karmensita

Cultivars in Russian

Register list (2010)

F1

Yuna

Weight 0,8-1,0 kg.

Ascorbic acid 38,4-55,5

mg/100g, ß-carotene 4,88-

6,82 mg/100g,

chlorophylls 112,52-165,

50 mg/100g.

Line is DNA markered.

Alyonushka

Weight 1,0-2,2 kg.

Ascorbic acid 44-90

mg/100g in leaves and

27-33 mg/100g in

petioles, chlorophylls

130-180 mg/100g, β-

carotene 6,8-9,6

mg/100g.

Leaf rosette is flat,

ornamental like

flower.

Valuable biochemical

composition.

Resistant to 6 races

of black rot.

Korolla

Pak-choi and tatsoi of VIR breeding

Everybody likes

vegetables

Thank you for your

kind attention !