State Scientific Organization North Caucasian Regional Research Institute of Horticulture and Viticulture of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences
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TO THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF N. I. VAVILOV’S RULE ON HOMOLOGICAL SERIES IN HEREDITARY VARIABILITY
06.01.05 Selection and seed production of agricultural plants (agricultural sciences)
Description100 years ago, on June 4, 1920, 32-year-old Professor of the Saratov University Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov (1887-1943) first reported at the III all-Russian selection Congress at the University of Saratov on his discovery of homological series in the study of parallelisms in the phenomena of hereditary variability by analogy with homological series of organic compounds. This discovery in genetics received the rank of law, the only one after the laws of G. Mendel. This major study was a further development of the genetic idea of C. Darwin on the origin of species. It showed the ways in which close species and genera of plants have a parallel formative process, because the crucial in the process of evolutionary development of living organisms – first of all, their genetic features. In cases where the development of a trait requires the joint and consistent action of many genes, the occurrence of homological series is inevitable, and this does not contradict the random variability of C. Darwin. In addition to its great genetic significance as a law of evolution, the law of homological series in hereditary variability is of great importance for botanists, plant breeders and breeders: it not only determines the place of each form in the plant world, but can also indicate to the breeder possible directions in his practical work. According to a number of geneticists and breeders, if G. Mendel discovered the rules of heredity, then N. I. Vavilov discovered the rules of variability