Biochemistry of cultivated plants and the global collection of VIR in the context of healthy nutrition issues

In recent years, the priority of the interest expressed by the society and scientific community to the issues of ensuring safe, healthy or functional, nutrition, preserving the regional human habitats which have developed over centuries with their specific food supply and areas for regionally adapted agricultural production, and protecting regional diets from the negative impact of globalization processes has been quite obvious. This country, represented by VIR with its unique collection, accumulated methodology, instrumental base and highly qualified specialists, has an exceptional potential for solving these strategically important problems. The pioneering works, which made it possible to substantiate the above trends at the end of the 20th century, were initiated and developed in this country at VIR by N.I. Vavilov's associates, namely by the founder of applied plant biochemistry N.N. Ivanov, who organized research into biologically active compounds in the 1920s, and G.T. Selyaninov, who formulated the concept of "climatic analogs" and organized the development of recommendations for the rational placement of agricultural crops in the regions of the country. The modern technologies of analytical biochemistry currently used at VIR in combination with classical biochemical methods increase the demand for the biochemically characterized accessions of the Vavilov collection, in particular for solving problems of functional nutrition and preserving (restoring) regional human habitats with their specific provision of food products and resources for regionally adapted agricultural production.