Laboratory of Intensive Wheat Variety Breeding

The laboratory was founded in 1966. It was initially called the laboratory for the study and use of heterosis, and its research covered the effectiveness of heterosis in wheat hybrids and the development of methods for its practical use.

Later, as research into the features of short-stemmed wheat genotypes expanded and practical results in breeding semi-dwarf varieties were achieved, the laboratory received its present name.

The patterns of formation of yield components and of biological and morphological traits in semi-dwarf soft winter wheat varieties have been studied. A breeding model of short-stemmed varieties has been developed.

The absence of genotypic correlation between the size and vigour of the root system and the above-ground part of plants has been proven, despite a strong phenotypic correlation between these traits.

A crossing scheme has been developed that involves experimental genetic donors of dwarfism and spring varieties to breed highly intensive winter wheat varieties of semi-dwarf and short types — weakly photoperiod-sensitive, with an optimal vernalisation period, drought-tolerant, and mid-early to early-maturing.

The relationship of various dwarfism genes with frost resistance has been studied, and a method has been developed for creating varieties with a shortened straw and a high level of frost resistance.

Soft winter wheat varieties have been created with qualitatively new gliadin and glutenin spectra encoded by genes previously absent from the gene pool of Ukrainian winter wheat varieties. By grain quality these varieties belong to extra-strong wheat: flour strength up to 560 a.u., bread volume from 100 g of flour 1,600–1,800 cm³.

Over the laboratory’s existence, more than 120 soft winter wheat varieties have been created, 85 of which have been entered into the state plant-variety registers of Ukraine and other countries. As of 2026, Ukraine’s State Register of Plant Varieties includes 21 of the laboratory’s varieties.

Over the past 10 years the staff have published 16 scientific articles (2 in journals indexed by international scientometric databases, 14 in category “B” professional journals), as well as 66 publications in other Ukrainian professional journals and in proceedings of international and national scientific-practical conferences.

Each year the staff take part in the “Field Day” scientific-practical meetings, presenting new soft winter wheat varieties and the specifics of growing them, with tours of demonstration plots both at the institute and at other research institutions and farms across Ukraine.