The gene pool of black currant preserved at the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR)

Black currant has long been one of the most revered and beloved berry garden plants. It is valued for its high winter hardiness, productivity, fruiting precocity, and relatively undemanding cultivability. Among berry crops, black currant occupies one of the leading positions in terms of the content of nutrients and bioactive compounds necessary for a balanced human diet.
Russia is the world’s leader both in the production of black currant berries and in the number of released cultivars.
The gene pool of black currant maintained at VIR contains diverse genetic material of Ribes L., including accessions with well-known genes, cultivars serving as sources of important agronomic traits promising for breeding, and valuable species representatives.
The extensive genetic potential of the collection is a reliable cache of valuable source material for contemporary breeding.
The National Catalogue includes 360 accessions of the collection. These are primarily cultivars with known genes responsible for certain traits, sources of the most important agronomic and biological traits, and the most valuable species representatives.

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