Characterization of fiber flax accessions from the VIR collection, included in the National Catalogue of the Russian Federation, according to their status

The VIR collection includes 2,487 fiber flax accessions; 33.2% of them are landraces and local cultivars, 39.8% are breeding materials of varying levels of improvement, 26.8% are improved cultivars, and 0.2% belong to Linum crepitans.

VIR managed to collect 825 landraces in a majority of the world’s flax-growing regions before their disappearance. This is the most valuable part of the global flax diversity. Breeding material is well represented by breeding (774) and inbred (103) lines, as well as lines of mutagenic origin (29). There are 667 commercial fiber flax cultivars in the VIR collection, including Russian cultivars (31%), those from the ex-USSR countries (20%), and those from the rest of the world (49%). One hundred and eight cultivars have been approved for cultivation (zoned) in Russia.

Three historical periods may be outlined in the process of building up the collection of fiber flax. In the first period (until 1950), the target of plant collectors were landraces and cultivars resulting from the first breeding efforts. Cultivars and breeding materials were collected in the second period (1951-1991), as the supply of local cultivated stock had significantly decreased. In the third period (since 1992), large amounts of breeding materials (500) and improved cultivars (176) were accumulated from all over the world.

The collection of fiber flax has been maintained at VIR for more than 100 years. During this time, breeding trends have suffered multiple changes, new methods have been developed for instrumental assessment of fiber, and the composition of flax pathogens and their races has continuously transformed. Weather conditions are also changing. These are the challenges that modern plant breeding is facing, and solutions cannot be found without utilizing plant biological resources.

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