Vol 59, No 1 (2023)

The review is devoted to pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) in soft winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) as one of the main problems faced by specialists in the field of genetics and selection of grain crops. Pre-harvest sprouting leads to a decrease in yields and economic losses. In the present work the internal and external factors which influence PHS grain crops as well as their interrelation, has been described. The characteristic for efficiency and featuresthe use of physiology-biochemical and molecular genetic methods to evaluate the pre-harvest sprouting resistance of soft wheat grain are given.

One of the urgent problems of genetic toxicology is the development of new and improvement of existing test systems for the detection and assessment of the level of mutagenic and carcinogenic activity of various factors. A unique position among the known test systems belongs to the alpha test, that is based on the life cycle of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Its main difference from existing test systems is the ability to detect a wide range of genetic events, such as gene mutations, conversion, recombination, loss of the right arm and the entire III chromosome, as well as primary lesions to the genetic material before they are eliminated by repair systems. Here, we proposed and tested a genetic modification of tester strains that increased the sensitivity and efficiency of the test system. Our results allowed us to conclude that the proposed modification of the tester strain led to the sensitivity increase of the test system by an order of magnitude.

In order to study a regulation mechanism for one of the most ancient processes of anthocyanin biosynthesis in plants based on comparison of R2R3-MYB genes in Solanaceae (S. lycopersicum: An1, An2; S. melongena: Myb1; C. annuum: Myb113-like1 и Myb113-like2) and Brassicaeae crops, a search for orthologous sequences in Brassica oleracea was performed. A sequence encoding MYB114 TF was found to be the closest in a nucleotide structure to the previously investigated genes in Solanaceae. Primers were selected and a comparative analysis of Myb114 gene sequences was performed in B. oleracea varieties (white cabbage, red cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, and kohlrabi) with a wide intraspecies diversity by the anthocyanin accumulation in leaves and various food organs: heads, curds and stems. Alignment of Myb114 sequences revealed a number of gene polymorphisms that closely correlate with high anthocyanin accumulation in B. oleracea leaves, including 3 SNPs in exon regions and a 271 bp deletion in the 1st intron. The identified SNPs lead to the replacement of two amino acids located in the region of DNA-binding domains, which leads to a change in the binding efficiency of this transcription factor with the promoters of structural biosynthesis genes and a decrease in their expression level in the forms without anthocyanin accumulation in leaves compared with the forms with their accumulation in vegetative plant parts. A molecular marker MYB114.2 has been proposed that may be used for the identification of headed cabbages and kales with high/low anthocyanin accumulation. By the amino acid structure and phenotypic manifestation (regulation of anthocyanin accumulation in leaves), Myb114 B. oleracea is the closest to Ant2 tomato, Myb2 eggplant and Myb113-like2 pepper alleles. A high degree of conservatism of the SANT DNA-binding domains of MYB114 TF of B. oleracea and R2R3-MYB TF of nightshades was established.

In this work, quantitative trait loci (QTL) were mapped for the first time in spring bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) when various doses of a lime ameliorant, raw-milled dolomite, were introduced into the soil in order to reveal and identify genetic determinants that determine the ecological genetic interaction “genotype–environment” in recombinant inbred lines of this crop. As a result of the research, 29 economically valuable traits were evaluated and a total of 150 QTLs were mapped. The significance of the relationship between the identified QTLs and polymorphism for each studied trait was established based on the threshold values of the likelihood ratio of the logarithm of odds (LOD-score). It was found that when half and full doses of the ameliorant were applied to the soil, the QTLs that determine the manifestation of 14 studied traits changed their location on the linkage groups depending on the applied dose of raw ground dolomite, and the QTL of 15 traits remained stable and did not change the localization on the chromosomes established in the experiments. Conducted correlation and one-way analysis of variance made it possible to establish the nature of the conjugation of the relationship between the traits and the dose of the introduced lime ameliorant. When performing mathematical calculations, the maximum likelihood criterion and statistical criteria for assessing the significance of the results were used. The results obtained are of interest for the subsequent study of the ecological and genetic mechanisms of the realization of the studied traits and the control of growth, development and productivity in spring soft wheat, and the establishment of trigger mechanisms for the action of the ameliorant on the physiological state of plants.

A study of genetic diversity in groups of Atlantic Сhub mackerel from the waters of the Central-East Atlantic was carried out on the basis of seven microsatellite loci. All loci were polymorphic, the estimates of expected heterozygosity varied from 0.021 to 0.914. For all studied samples of Atlantic Сhub mackerel, a heterozygosity deficiency was identified, associated with the presence of null alleles in four of the seven studied microsatellite loci. A low but significant value of genetic differentiation was obtained, calculated for all loci (θ = 0.0052), which, presumably, may also be associated with the violation of panmixia due to the formation of individual subpopulations as a result of the uneven impact of fishing in different localities.

Internal fertilization and viviparity are characteristic of some species of the genus Sebastes. Polyandry has also been reported for some species of this genus. We used five microsatellite markers and three main statistical approaches to estimate the level of polyandry in a wild population of white-edged rockfish (Sebastes taczanowskii). In some clutches, we detected multiple paternity. This study is the first record of multiple paternity in white-edged rockfish from the Far East. Polyandry is probably quite a widespread strategy in this species inhabiting the Far Eastern seas, and also an important factor in the regulation of genetic diversity and productivity.

Data on the variability of nucleotide sequences of whole mitochondrial genomes in Ukrainians were analyzed. A comparative analysis of genetic diversity parameters showed that Ukrainians, like other European populations, are characterized by a high level of mtDNA diversity. However, between-population differences in Europe are very low (F_ST = 0.36%, p < 0.00001). According to the results of the F_ST-analysis, Ukrainians show the greatest similarity with Slovaks, Russians, Poles, Serbs, and Estonians. On the graph of multidimensional scaling of F_ST-distances, Ukrainians are located together with Western and Eastern Slavs, occupying a central position among them. The results of the analysis of the dynamics of the effective population size (N_e) showed differences in the long-term dynamics of N_e between populations of the north and south of Eastern Europe. For Ukrainians and the southwestern Russian populations, a period of sharp population growth was recorded in the Neolithic period (approximately 8.2 thousand years ago), while for Estonians and northwestern Russians, population growth was observed much later, in the Bronze Age (approximately 4.3 thousand years ago). An analysis of data on mtDNA variability in Slavic populations showed that the frequency of ethnic specific mtDNA haplotypes varies quite widely in different ethnic groups, from 1.3% in Slovaks to 10.3% in Poles. The proportion of Slavic-specific mtDNA haplotypes also varies: the least number of such haplotypes was found in Czechs and Serbs (less than 10%), and most of all in Ukrainians (23.6%).