The Institute of Plant Industry, Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry or All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry (in Russian: Всероссийский институт растениеводства им. Н. И. Вавилова), as it is officially called, is a research institute of plant genetics, located in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The approaches of modern plant biology, biochemistry and biotechnology areaggregately targeted at the improvement of health and life quality of thepopulation. It is achieved through the enhancement of qualitativecharacteristics in various crop genotypes, the composition and content ofbioactive compounds (BAC) in them, and their adaptability to stressors. Animportant trend is the development of rapid plant breeding technologies forcereal, vegetable, fruit and berry crops beneficial for healthy nutrition.This issue presents the results of versatile experimental and theoreticalresearch ventures contributing in different ways to the effective promotionof this trend.
Background. Guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub.) is a newly introduced crop for southern regions of Russia. Guar gum, a component of guar seeds, is used in a number of sectors of the national economy, being strategically important for the gas and oil industry. Targeted introduction of guar requires better understanding of the crop’s adaptive potential, and more specifically, its responses to droughts typical for most of Russia’s southern areas.Material and methods. Guar accessions from the VIR collection were phenotyped at Volgograd Experiment Station of VIR in 2023–2024. The studied set was selected to represent the crop’s gene pool to the fullest extent possible. The same accessions were studied under drip irrigation and artificial drought conditions. The study was performed according to the guidelines developed at VIR. Statistica 13.3 software was used for statistical data processing.Results. Seed productivity was accepted as the main criterion to assess the plant’s adaptability to drought. On its basis, the studied set of accessions was differentiated into three groups: drought-tolerant, sensitive to drought, and neutral to water supply. The analyzed indicators manifested different degrees of variability under the conditions of irrigation and drought. The status revealed for the majority of accessions in the context of their responses to drought remained unchanged in both years of the study.Conclusion. The drip irrigation scheme used in 2023 (5 L per plant per week) turned out to be excessive for most accessions, while the one half as lower in 2024 (2.5 L per plant per week) appeared favorable for the accessions of all three groups. With optimal irrigation, a majority of guar accessions exhibited a tendency toward increased seed productivity, regardless of the group.
Guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub.) is a legume crop valued for the gum (carbohydrate galactomannan) found in its seeds, which is widely used in the oil and mining industries. In this study, we assessed changes in seed metabolite content caused by drought stress in three guar genotypes (tolerant, neutral, and sensitive to drought) in order to gain an insight into molecular mechanisms of guar tolerance to drought. The most intense response to drought was observed in seeds of the tolerant genotype. In response to drought, the content of sugars and their derivatives in the seeds of all three genotypes changed: monosaccharide content increased and glycoside content decreased. However, the tolerant genotype accumulated a specific set of sugars and their derivatives, including galactinol, and demonstrated higher levels of tocopherols. The neutral genotype was characterized by higher content of glycosides and pentoses, while the sensitive genotype had higher accumulation of some specific sugars and derivatives, major phytosterols, and unsaturated C18 fatty acids. Overall, the accumulation of galactinol, phytol, and alpha-tocopherol in seeds was associated with guar drought tolerance. This finding expands the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance in guar and paves the way for breeding drought-tolerant guar varieties.
Tomato Solanum lycopersicum L. contains a large number of polyphenolic complexes, which are biologically active compounds. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in combination with a ion trap (tandem mass spectrometry) was used to identify target analytes in extracts of tomatoes obtained from the collection of the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources. The results of initial studies revealed the presence of 102 compounds, of which 22 were identified for the first time in S. lycopersicum L. These are flavones: apigenin, luteolin; flavanols: kaempferol, taxifolin, myricetin, hydroxycinnamic acids: coutaric acid, 5-O-p-coumaroylquinic acid, feruloylquinic acid, chicoric acid, 4,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid; hydroxybenzoic acids: salvianolic acid D and salvianolic acid G; coumarins fraxetin and fraxetin-7-O-β-glucuronide, anthocyanin pelargonidin, cyclohexanecarboxylic acid perillic acid; rosmanol, oxylipin colnelenic acid, benzenepropanoic acid ethyl rosmarinate, lignans: medioresinol and medioresinol-O-hexoside, triterpenoid squalene, etc.
In recent years, the priority of the interest expressed by the society and scientific community to the issues of ensuring safe, healthy or functional, nutrition, preserving the regional human habitats which have developed over centuries with their specific food supply and areas for regionally adapted agricultural production, and protecting regional diets from the negative impact of globalization processes has been quite obvious. This country, represented by VIR with its unique collection, accumulated methodology, instrumental base and highly qualified specialists, has an exceptional potential for solving these strategically important problems. The pioneering works, which made it possible to substantiate the above trends at the end of the 20th century, were initiated and developed in this country at VIR by N.I. Vavilov's associates, namely by the founder of applied plant biochemistry N.N. Ivanov, who organized research into biologically active compounds in the 1920s, and G.T. Selyaninov, who formulated the concept of "climatic analogs" and organized the development of recommendations for the rational placement of agricultural crops in the regions of the country. The modern technologies of analytical biochemistry currently used at VIR in combination with classical biochemical methods increase the demand for the biochemically characterized accessions of the Vavilov collection, in particular for solving problems of functional nutrition and preserving (restoring) regional human habitats with their specific provision of food products and resources for regionally adapted agricultural production.
