Igor G Loskutov

N.I.Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR) · Genetic Resources of Oat, Barley, Rye

Background . Studying genetic diversity and identifying sources of valuable agronomic traits for specific environmental conditions is of great importance for plant breeders when they select source material for crop improvement. Materials and methods . Three hundred and seven oat accessions of various ecogeographic origin were tested under the condi...

The range of methods for assessing the quality of grain and its technological properties in cereal crops, of oat in particular, is extremely limited. The available methods are labor-intensive and not always sufficiently informative. The variety of modern processing methods dictates the necessity in searching for more universal and informative asses...

Background . Oat is an important food and feed cereal crop in Russia. The area under oats is 10 million ha worldwide, and 3 million ha in Russia. Acid soils with excessive content of exchangeable aluminum occupy almost every third hectare in the exUSSR territory. Oats are relatively resistant to unfavorable soil factors. Among cereal crops, oat is...

Background . Yakutia lies within a risky farming region, where both low temperatures and insufficient moisture are the limiting factors. Oat is the main cereal fodder crop in Yakutia. Climate warming observed in recent decades has been affecting oat cultivation in different climatic areas of Yakutia. The objective of the study was to analyze weathe...

In December 2023, the leading mycologist-phytopathologist of the Russian Federation, head of the laboratory of plant immunity to diseases of the All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Protection (VIZR), Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Olga Silvestrovna Afanasenko celebrates her anniversary....

This catalogue presents the agrobiological characteristics of 329 accessions of oats from the VIR collection, planted in the fields of the VIR Pushkin Laboratories from 2014 to 2020. The accessions were studied for three years in five sets: 65 accessions in 2014–2016, 50 in 2015–2017, 72 in 2016–2018, 77 in 2017–2019, and 65 accessions in 2018–2020...

The central problem that Vavilov was investigating was the overall concept of global plant genetic resources. The theoretical basis of this concept consisted of the law of homologous series in variation, research on the problem of species as a system, botanical and geographical bases of plant breeding, and the key theory of the centers of origin of...

This Special Issue of Plants is dedicated to the eminent scientist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov (1887–1943) in remembrance of his 135th birthday on 25 November 1887 [...]

In this article, we analyzed the origin of wild polyploid oats (Avena L., Poaceae) using the region 18S rDNA (partially)-ITS1-5.8S rDNA obtained via NGS. There are six tetraploid (2n = 28) and four hexaploid (2n = 42) wild species differing by specific genome combinations: A. barbata, A. vaviloviana (AB), A. agadiriana (AB or BB), A. magna, A. murp...

Oat is one of the leading cereals cultivated in the world and in Russia; it has an important fodder and nutritional value. To preserve the entire crop agrobiodiversity worldwide, there is a network of genebanks that hold more than 200,000 oat accessions. International and national genebanks are located in all the world’s countries, but one of the l...

In this review we examine Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov’s relationship to Scandinavia and the impact he and his ideas have had on Scandinavia. We trace the historical connections from Vavilov back to 18th century scientists, such as Carl Von Linneaus (Sweden) and 19th century European scientists such as Alphonse de Candolle (Switzerland), Henry de Vilm...

We performed next generation sequencing (NGS) of wild and cultivated oat species (Avena L.) ITS1 sequence and the beginning of the gene 5.8S rRNA on the Illumina platform. For the first time, the NGS method was used to carry out a phylogenetic analysis of the domestication pathways of three cultivated oat species: tetraploid A. abyssinica (AB), hex...

Oat is one of the most widespread and important cereal crops in the global agricultural production. Searching for new high-yielding and nutritious forms continues to be relevant, especially under the global trend of climate change, when most local oat cultivars may become economically inefficient. Spring oat accessions from VIR collection served as...

For the first time, using next generation sequencing (NGS) on the Illumina platform of the ITS1 sequence and the beginning of the 5.8S rRNA gene, the current state of genomic compositions of complex cultivated oat hybrids based on the Avena macrostachya was studied. It was shown that A. sativa х A. macrostachya hybrid used for further hybridization...

This review surveys the current state of taxonomy, origin, and utilization prospects for naked barley. The cultivated barley Hordeum vulgare L. incorporates the covered and naked barley groups. Naked barleys are divided into six-row naked barley (convar. сoeleste (L.) A. Trof.) and two-row naked barley (convar. nudum (L.) A. Trof.). The groups incl...

Background . Soil toxicity of Al is associated with severe changes in plant root morphology that limit the uptake of water and mineral nutrients. Long-term exposure to Al results in deficiencies in some important nutrients, such as phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and iron. Thus, the joint study of plant resistance to the effects of Al an...

We used next-generation sequencing analysis of the 3′-part of 18S rDNA, ITS1, and a 5′-part of the 5.8S rDNA region to understand genetic variation among seven diploid A-genome Avena species. We used 4–49 accessions per species that represented the As genome (A. atlantica, A. hirtula, and wiestii), Ac genome (A. canariensis), Ad genome (A. damascen...

Metabolomic profiling data obtained through gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry are presented. Thirty oat accessions from the collection of the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic resources (VIR) served as the material for the research. Those accessions of Russian and French origin showed different degrees of breeding refinement:...

Alexander Ivanovich Malzev is one of the foremost collectors and founders of the VIR herbarium collection (WIR). To develop the original system of Euavena section, he collected over 16,000 herbarium specimens and studied Russian and foreign herbarium collections of botanical gardens, museums and universities. During the inventory of historical c...

The Impact of Vavilov’s Concept of the Centres of Crop Origin and Diversity on Research, Conservation, and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources Today—A Review on the Occasion of Vavilov’s 135th Anniversary

The origin of diploid C-genome oat Avena bruhnsiana, which is a rare endemic species from Azerbaijan (Apsheron Peninsula) has been clarified. This diploid oat was found only in Apsheron Peninsula in Azerbaijan and is closely related to another diploid species, A. ventricosa that belongs to C-genome oat group. In culture these species form fertile p...

This Special Issue presents some advances in the results of cereal crop breeding. These studies address only some of the bottlenecks in the breeding of specific crops. At the same time, the advances in the modern breeding of grain crops are multifaceted and diverse, occurring in different countries and different continents of the world. At present,...

The catalogue presents laboratory screening data of a fragment of the oat collection tested for resistance to unfavorable edaphic factors (high level pH and Al content). The purpose of this catalogue was to present a complete database of results on the oat accessions resistance to excessive mobile aluminum in the nutrient medium, obtained from the...

This catalogue presents the data obtained while studying oat accessions from the VIR collection in 2014–2019 in the fields of the Kuban Experiment Station of VIR to identify sources of useful agronomic traits for oat breeding in Krasnodar Territory and other regions of Russia. The materials for the research were 307 new oat accessions from 31 forei...

Background. Barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) and oat ( Avena sativa L.) are grain crops belonging to one of the main sources of food and forage in the Russian Federation. They contain proteins, various groups of vitamins, fats, carbohydrates, β-glucans, minerals and different bioloactive compounds, including anthocyanins. Recently, much attention has b...

Climate changes leading to higher summer temperatures can adversely affect cool season crops like spring barley. In the Upper Midwest region of the United States, one option for escaping this stress factor is to plant winter or facultative type cultivars in the autumn and then harvest in early summer before the onset of high-temperature stress. How...

Fusarium disease of oats reduces yield quality due to decreasing germination that is caused by then contamination of grain with mycotoxins produced by Fusarium fungi. The aim of this study was to characterize the resistance of naked breeding lines of oats to fungal grain infection and to contamination with T-2 and HT-2 toxins. Thirteen naked oat br...

The article presents biochemical characteristics identified during the analysis of metabolomic profiles. The object of this study was the landraces of cultivated oat species Avena strigosa Schreb., A. abyssinica Hochst. and A. sativa L. with different ploidy levels from the global collection of the Department of Genetic Resources of Oats, Rye, and...

For diploid (2x) species with the A-genome, as well as for hexaploid (6x) from the genus Avena, a locus-specific next-generation sequencing (NGS) of the sequence of the region of the internal transcribed spacer ITS1 and the beginning of the 5.8S rRNA gene was carried out on the Illumina platform. The high diversity and heterogeneity of the genomes...

A molecular phylogenetic study of weed-field species of the genus Avena L. using marker sequences ITS1–5.8S rRNA gene–ITS2 was undertaken. In addition, next-generation sequencing (NGS) was performed on the Illuminaplatform for the ITS1 sequence and the beginning of the gene 5.8S rRNA. Sanger sequencing results revealed the separateclade of microspe...

Among the chronicles relating the heroism of the besieged Leningrad, there are pages dedicated to the deeds performed by the staff the world-famous All-Union Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR, now the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources). With the beginning of the war, even before the city was surrounded by the Naz...

Nutrition is a source of energy, and building material for the human organism. The quality of food has an effect on the quality of individual life. Minerals and vitamins participate in various catalytic and regulatory functions of the main metabolic processes: absorption, transport, redox and biosynthesis of organic compounds, genetic information t...

Among the chronicles relating the heroism of the besieged Leningrad, there are pages dedicated to the deeds performed by the staff the world-famous All-Union Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR, now the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources). With the beginning of the war, even before the city was surrounded by the Naz...

The genus Avena L. includes cultivated species of great practical importance, segetal weeds, and wild species, which are interesting as potential sources of valuable traits for breeding purposes. Until now, there has been considerable disagreement in understanding the size of the genus, especially regarding the isolation of rare specialized species...

Cereal crops, such as oats and barley, possess a number of valuable properties that meet the requirements for functional diet components. This review summarized the available information about bioactive compounds of oat and barley grain. The results of studying the structure and physicochemical properties of the cell wall polysaccharides of barley...

Background.Studying the gene pool of a crop under specific soil and climate conditions makes it possible to predict the breeding value of germplasm, while its subsequent inclusion in the breeding process ensures the development of adaptable cultivars capable of implementing their productive potential in large-scale agriculture. Materials and method...

Background.The grain of naked oat varieties has a unique biochemical composition (increased content of protein, starch, fat, and β-glucans) for the production of high-quality dietary food and feed. Relatively low adaptability restrains the spread of naked oat cultivars, but the demand for them has been increasing from year to year. Currently, only...

Cereal crops, such as oats and barley, possess a number of valuable properties that meet the requirements for functional diet components. This review summarized the available information about bioactive compounds of oat and barley grain. The results of studying the structure and physicochemical properties of the cell wall polysaccharides of barley...

Climate change has become a significant factor in crop production in the 21st century for many countries. To turn losses into profit, adaptation measures are needed, which are based on the analysis and forecast of economically valuable characteristics of crops. The field trial data were analyzed for 764 oat accessions from the global germplasm coll...

Cereal grains provide half of the calories consumed by humans. In addition, they contain important compounds beneficial for health. During the last years, a broad spectrum of new cereal grain-derived products for dietary purposes emerged on the global food market. Special breeding programs aimed at cultivars utilizable for these new products have b...

Alleles of avenin-coding loci were identified in 24 varieties of common oat origin from 6 different breeding centers of the Russian Federation. It was found that 33% of the studied varieties are homogeneous. Heterogeneous varieties contain from 2 to 10 biotypes. The analysis revealed 67 different genotypes, ten of which are found in the spectra of...

The catalogue presents agrobiological descriptions of 404 oat accessions from the collection held by the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR), grown in 2001–2011 at Yekaterinino Experiment Station of VIR. The accessions were arranged in nine sets, and each was tested within a decade: 44 accessions in 2001–2003; 37 in...

The year 2019 marked the 125th anniversaries of the foundation of the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR). It was a long way from the Bureau of Applied Botany to VIR, the world-famous institution for the systematic collection, comprehensive study, secure conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources. The initiator...

The article provides a historical background on the activities of the N. I. Vavilov All‑Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR) for a 125‑year period. The Institute began its history as the Bureau of Applied Botany in the end of the 19th century, the times of the Russian Empire; it went through the crucible of World War I, the October Re...

The greenbug (Sсhizaphis graminum) is a dangerous pest of cereals in Southern Russia. Breeding of resistant varieties is an effective and eco-friendly way to control this insect. Its differential interaction with host plants substantiates the search for new resistance donors. We evaluated 276 accessions of oat landraces from Central Asian countries...

As part of conservation of plant genetic resources, long-term storage of seeds is highly relevant for genebanks. Here we present a systematic review and a meta-analysis of studies on seed longevity focusing on half-life (P50) under different storage conditions. Six studies were selected for the meta-analysis; in addition, a high number of additiona...

Background . The requirement for high-quality oat grain for food production leads to the need for studying the resistance of this cereal crop to harmful diseases and for the development of new productive cultivars. Materials and methods . A comparative characterization was performed among the breeding lines of naked oats from Nemchinovka Federal Re...

Using DNA sequencing on the Roche 454 platform, we studied intragenomic polymorphism of one of the 35S rRNA regions (18S rDNA fragment–ITS1–fragment of 5.8S rDNA) in three hexaploid Avena species with karyotypes AACCDD and a tetraploid species A. insularis (AAСС orCCDD). Instead of expected 50% of C-variant ITS1 in A. insularis and 33% of C-variant...

Molecular and biochemical markers are used to analyze the intraspecific genetic diversity of crops. Prolamincoding loci are highly effective for assessing this indicator. On the basis of the Laboratory of Varietal Seed Identification of the State Agrarian University of the Northern Trans-Urals, 18 varieties of common oat included in the State Regis...

Background. Oat grains accumulate substantial amounts of various phenolic compounds that possess biological activity and have a potential to considerably increase health benefits of oats as a food. Avenanthramides (AVA) is an important group of these compounds due to their antioxidant, anti-itching, anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative activities....

The main trend in crop breeding is to increase productivity and improve grain quality indicators. The formation of high crop productivity requires cultivars with high potential for productivity and quality as well as with resistance to biotic and abiotic environmental factors. Successful solution of these and emerging breeding problems is possible...

Potassium is indispensable for plant growth. Recently, a role of K+ channels has emerged in sensing and transducing stress and nutrient status. Tetraethylammonium (TEA+) is a specific blocker of K+ transport and affects K+ channel gene expression. Two barley varieties with contrasting salinity tolerance, and a chlorophyll b-less mutant, were grown...

Substances inhibiting or preventing oxidative damage in the target molecule are called antioxidants. It has been shown that antioxidants are substances that contribute to the prevention of a number of serious human diseases, and antioxidant activity is one of the important parameters for the quality of food products and ingredients. Phenolic compou...

Under conditions of climate change, the assessment of the stability of genotypes is of particular importance. To conduct directed selection of genotypes with a narrow or broad reaction rate, it is necessary to assess their stability already in the early stages of breeding. The aim of the study was to study the stability of breeding significant trai...

Spot blotch caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana is an important disease in barley worldwide, causing considerable yield losses and reduced grain quality. In order to identify QTL conferring resistance to spot blotch, a highly diverse worldwide barley set comprising 449 accessions was phenotyped for seedling resistance with three isolates (No 31, SH 15...

The common oat (Avena sativa L.) is an excellent source of nutritional compounds. The objectives of this study were: (1) to identify oat accessions cultivated in Russia with high nutritive values of grain components, including iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), protein, oil and fatty acids, and (2) to determine how the measured components are in...

Background: Grasslands in the Arctic tundra undergo irreversible degradation due to climatic changes and also over-exploitation and depletion of scarce resources. Comprehensive investigations of cytogenomic structures of valuable Arctic and sub-Arctic grassland species is essential for clarifying their genetic peculiarities and phylogenetic relati...

The article addresses the issues of using metabolomic analysis to study genetic resources of cereal crops in order to (1) determine phylogenetic linkages between species (the degree of domestication); (2) within species to describe genetic diversity according to its responses to biotic and abiotic stressors and biochemical characteristics (chemical...

Background. Structuring and phenotyping genetic diversity is an important aspect of the work with breeding sources and materials. In the Introduction, the authors pointed out the role of N.I. Vavilovs scientific foresight in defining the topical trend in researching the genetic diversity of a crop, particularly the analysis of its biochemical compo...

The article the issues of using metabolomic analysis to study genetic resources of cereal crops in order to (1) determine phylogenetic linkages between species (the degree of domestication); (2) within species to describe genetic diversity according to its responses to biotic and abiotic stressors and biochemical characteristics (chemical compounds...

Grasslands in the Arctic tundra undergo irreversible degradation due to climatic changes and also over-exploitation and depletion of scarce resources. Comprehensive investigations of cytogenomic structures of valuable Arctic and sub-Arctic grassland species is essential for clarifying their genetic peculiarities and phylogenetic relationships, and...

Background. The breeding of resistant varieties is an effective way to control greenbug Schizaphis graminum Rondani, an economically important pest of oat and other cereals in southern Russia. The insect-host differential interaction necessitates a constant search for new resistance donors. Materials and methods. One hundred and ninety one accessio...

Background . Fungal diseases are the main cause of the deterioration of grain quality and lower yield of cereals crops. Reduction of acreage, and, as a consequence, violation of crop rotation rules, oversaturation of fields with cereals, spring and summer droughts contribute to the mass emergence and widespreading of new obligate and facultative di...

The article presents the results of an evaluation of the earliness and photoperiodic response (PPR) in the long-day oat accessions of various geographic origin. The material for this study were 139 oat accessions from the global collection of plant genetic resources maintained by the Vavilov Institute (VIR), which included landraces, breeding culti...

The study was performed to create a cultivar of naked oat with improved productivity and grain quality for cultivation in changing climate conditions and as a source of useful breeding properties. We found that the preflag leaf area had a significant effect on the formation of the number of grains and grain weight in the panicle and on the total bi...

The aim of the research was to develop a cultivar of naked oat with improved traits of productivity and grain quality for cultivation under climate change conditions and utilization in breeding practice as a source of useful economic properties. The pre-flag leaf’s area was found to render a considerable effect on the formation of the number of gra...

Background Grasslands in the Arctic tundra undergo irreversible degradation due to climatic changes and also over-exploitation and depletion of scarce resources. Comprehensive investigations of cytogenomic structures of valuable Arctic and sub-Arctic grassland species is essential for clarifying their genetic peculiarities and phylogenetic relation...

Background. For the present-day oat breeding, the task is to develop adaptive cultivars with high yield potential, high quality of products, fairly early-ripening habit, and resistance to lodging and diseases. Breeding new cultivars with a complex of valuable characters, high yield, and high quality of products under varied environmental conditions...

The review focuses on the genetic consequences of interspecific hybridization and discusses its role in speciation and increasing the genetic diversity of plants, including the diversity of species and varieties of cultivated crops and garden plants. The combination of two or more genomes of different origin in the first-generation hybrids is usual...

This article is based on historical records of N.I. Vavilov’s organization of an exploration of Sardinia (Italy) in the year 1927 through his assistant N.M. Gaisinsky and on results of a recent exploration jointly conducted by the University of Sassari and the N.I Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR) in 2012. By tracking and revisitin...