Selection and Genetics, Institute of

an institute of the V. I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Odessa, created in 1912 from a selection department that was affiliated with the Odessa Experimental Field. (The selection department was a selection station from 1918to 1928and existed as the Ukrainian Institute of Genetics and Selection from 1928 to 1935.)

The Institute of Selection and Genetics deals with theoretical problems in agricultural biology, the elaboration of methods of selective breeding and seed production, and the development of highly productive hybrid varieties. The institute has created about 60 crop varieties, including Nutans 244 barley and Odesskaia 51, Priboi, and Kooperatorka winter wheats.

The institute has the following departments (1975): selective breeding and seed production of wheat, barley, corn feed crops, legumes, and oil crops; plant genetics and cytology; plant pathology and entomology; seed production; varietal agricultural technique; grain quality; artificial climate; testing and subsequent popularization of commercial varieties; research coordination; and scientific organization. Europe’s largest facilities for the cultivation of plants under artificially regulated conditions are at the institute. There are laboratories of biology, physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, hardiness, root systems, seed science, and mechanization. Courses are offered both at the institute and by correspondence.

Since 1949 the institute has published Trudy (Transactions). It was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1962 and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1940.