Page 139 - Book of Abstracts

5 International Scientific Online Conference DOI: https://doi.org/10.15414/2021.9788055224015

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FORMATION AND PRESERVATION OF COLLECTIONS OF GENETIC RESOURCES OF
LEGUMES AND GROATS CROPS
Oleh Tryhub, Serhiy Sylenko, Viktoria Voroncova, Olena Andruschenko,
Oleksandr Rohovyi
Ustymivska Experimental Station of Plant Production of Plant Production Institute
n.a. V.Y. Yuryev NAAS of Ukraine, Ustymivka, Ukraine; E-mail.: trygub_oleg@ukr.net
Global processes triggered by human activity and natural changes of flora are destroying
thousands of species each year. Throughout evolution, some of those species (including
legumes and groats crops) have formed the human food resources foundation on the planet.
Natural reserves containing wild species of cultivated plants are becoming extinct, the situation
with local varieties and forms is equally daunting. The samples of these species have been
collected for centuries, and they are the carriers of unique quality indicators of extreme
importance for human health and the backbone of a huge polymorphism based on economic
and selection value characteristics. Selection institutions are solving the global task of
increasing the productivity and quality of new varieties and hybrids. That it can only be solved
by involving a new source material with a combination of relevant parameters, including
resistance to abiotic environmental factors, disease, and pest damage in the selection process.
Collections are the reserves of such material. In Ukraine, one of the institutions
specializing in the formation and preservation of genetic resources is the Ustymivska
Experimental Station of Plant Production, a part of the System of Genetic Resources of Plants of
Ukraine. During over 60 years of work on mobilization, study, and preservation of plant
resources, the institution has accumulated a gene pool of legumes and groat crops totaling more
than 13.3 thousand samples (including 5886 millet, 3022 beans, 1643 buckwheat, 1384 grass
pea, and 1391 vetches, lupines and vignes). The collections are gathered using annual large-
scale expeditionary meetings on the territory of Ukraine and other countries, a wide
omnidirectional exchange of material with the world's leading gene banks, selection
institutions, and research centers, providing mutually beneficial exchange, aimed to enrich the
collections. The full-fledged collection of samples is facilitated by the extraordinary natural and
climatic diversity of Ukrainian territory that has formed a dramatically diverse flora
representation – from steppe and semidesert climate to Polissya, submontane, and mountain
with excessive rainfall. Each of the samples of the collection is represented in an electronic
database from the moment the seeds are included in the collection until the fact of its transfer
to plant breeders for work or other institutions for research.
The experimental station stores the collection material according to the type of medium-
term ex-situ storage in compliance with international standards of seed preparation and
storage. Natural and climatic conditions of the research station’s location (transition zone from
the Forest-Steppe to the Steppe) ensure the completeness of reproduction of newly obtained
samples and obtaining quality seeds. Direct storage is carried out in a chamber with controlled
conditions – dry air at a temperature of + 2–4 C. The number of seeds stored is sufficient to
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meet the needs of selection institutions, and when needed (i.e. in case of a significant order,
reduction of grain, or reduced germination in comparison with optimal parameters) scientific
units propagate it and put it into storage again.
Aiming to preserve the seeds in case of natural disasters and cataclysms, to be able to
restore unique species of cultivated plants that will disappear forever from the earth's
biosphere, the Ustymivska Experimental Station of Plant Production transferred 231 samples
of the grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) into in World Seed Vault in the Svalbard archipelago.
Keywords: collections, legumes and groats crops, ex-situ conservation.

5 International Scientific Conference Agrobiodiversity for Improving the Nutrition, Health, Quality of Life and |138
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Spiritual Human Development
November 3 2021
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