Establishment and activities of the Bureau of Applied Botany before 1905
The intensive development of agriculture in the 1870s and 1880s promoted an increased interest in agronomy and agricultural science in general in the Russian Empire. In the sphere of plant production, this interest pursued purely practical objectives related to describing, preserving and utilizing populations and races of local cultivars.
When studying the flora and plant life, botanists fixed their attention almost exclusively on wild species, while the majority of cultivated plants were not studied. The works of Koernike, Seringe, Alefeld and others laid the basis of the taxonomy of cultivated plants. These works were important for use in agriculture and practical plant breeding. Professor A.F. Batalin, who was the first to study cultivated plants in Russia, encountered materials of immense richness and repeatedly stressed the necessity of setting up a special laboratory for applied botany that would concentrate on the comprehensive study of the Russian cultivated flora. This idea was supported by other researchers, for instance, by Professor A.S. Famintsin and Professor I.P. Borodin.
To carry out these tasks a Bureau of Applied Botany was organized in 1894 under the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of Land Cultivation and State Property. In compliance with its Regulations, the Bureau comprised three departments: Information, Scientific and Acclimatization. These departments were responsible for determining the taxonomy of both cultivated and wild plant species. They supplied information on the sources where those species were available, and studied both cultivated and wild plant species regarding their botany, agronomy and phytopathology. They also promoted the introduction of various plant species and varieties into cultivation.
Organization of VIR's Work for Plant Genetic Resources
Always dominating the Institute's work was N.I.Vavilov's principle of strict geographical placing of the collected accessions for research, regeneration and viability maintenance in accordance with their origin.
The methodologies worked out by N.I.Vavilov and his associates for evaluating varieties in geographic experiments and for developing an agro-ecological crop classification helped to issue "Methodological guidance directories for studying the VIR's collections" (1973). Descriptor lists were developed for different crops. When the descriptor lists were issued, the Institute commenced the work on computerization of the collection of the passport data. At the same time, the Institute initiated to resume the publication of the "Reference catalogues" containing results of studies on certain genera and species for many years.
N.I.Vavilov's investigations in the sphere of phylogeny and genetics proper of cultivated plants have been continued. Results of these and other continuous studies of genetic potential of cultivated crops and their wild relatives have been processed by the VIR's researchers into volumes of the "Cultivated flora" and monographs devoted to separate crops. Many of them contain taxonomic descriptions of genera and species of cultivated plants and their wild relatives, updated or revised on the basis of new data on genetics, cytology and molecular biology. The publication of the Institute represent an encyclopedia of crop genetic resources. VIR sends the above publications to numerous research institutions within the USSR and to many foreign countries.
Following the major objective of developing N.I.Vavilov's concepts, fundamental research has been broadened, and the methodological work on genetics, physiology, immunity, biochemistry and molecular biology intensified at the Institute.
Investigations by Acad. V.F.Dorofeev (1972) resulted in determining that the focus of type-formation and evolution for Triticum was located in the Transcaucasus; Prof. R.A.Udachin proved N.I.Vavilov's thesis of coincidence in Middle Asia of the centres of origin, type-formation, and specific diversity of Triticum aestivum L. and T. compactum Host. He also described a new endemic species T. petropavlosky Udacz. et Migusch. Prof. A.I.Ivanov (1980) explored Middle Asia (Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan) and Kazakhstan and found there large foci of introgressive hybridization in wild alfalfa, determined areas of distribution for the species with different ploidy, and described the geography of plant characters having value for breeding. Prof. N.K.Lemeshev (1992) identified foci of origin of wilt-resistant long-fibre forms of cotton in Yucatan province and other regions of Mexico. Intensive explorations in Western, Central and Southern parts of Africa resulted in identification by Prof. S.N.Bakhareva (1988) of two independent centres of origin and diversity of cultivated plants and their wild relatives: the West African and Central African centres.
Applying the botanico-geographical methods devised by N.I.Vavilov, the Department of Tuber Crops headed by Acad. S.M.Bukasov and Acad. K.Z.Budin studied the geography and phylogeny of South American potatoes, improved taxonomy of this important crop, identified a centre of the maximum specific diversity and centres of the most intensive type-formation, areas of concentration of the traits valuable for breeding.
