Initial material of eggplant and prospects of breeding in South of Russia

Eggplant is widespread in southern Russia. Areas under the crop tend to grow. In addition to the open ground, the eggplant is cultivated in the comforted and protected soil, and the directions of use of products are expanded. Significant volumes of fruit in fresh form and after industrial processing are exported to more northern regions. Each use and method of cultivation requires an appropriate cultivar with a set of the right features and properties. Attracting new source material allows to solve the main problems of selection. The greatest prospects are the creation of the source material with high productivity in the conditions of different ways of cultivation, which is resistant to a set of adverse biotic and abiotic factors of the environment, lying and transportable, suitable for various uses and with a set of morphological features that improve its technological in production. In the implementation of breeding programs there is a lack of genetic sources of many signs and properties. This required special research to include new source material. The tasks of the research included both collecting the collection material and assessing it for the presence of valuable features, creating sources and donors of these traits and forming a gene plasma bank based on them, involving them in the breeding process. The research was carried out at the Rostovskii Breeding Centre of The Poisk Agro Holding in 2010-2019 in the open ground and spring greenhouses. Soils in experiments are ordinary blackearths. Weather conditions during the years of experiments were typical for the climate zone of southern Russia. Summer was hot and dry, with long periods of complete lack of precipitation in temperatures over 30 °C. The amount of active temperatures during the growing season exceeded 3500 °C, and the amount of precipitation averaged 280 mm. The technologies of eggplants growing adopted in the region were used. Based on the research, a variety of material was collected from different regions of the world, primarily from the countries where the eggplant culture is most developed (China, India, Thailand, Italy, Turkey Holland, Japan, etc.). Collected cultivars and hybrids were evaluated on the presence of valuable features and properties, on their basis created linear material of sources and donors of traits in demand in breeding programs. From the best lines formed a bank of sources and donors of the most important features - a collection of genplasma in the number of 70 samples. This collection is actively involved in breeding programs to create a variety for southern Russia and on its basis received more than 10 cultivars and hybrids of eggplant, differing in terms of use, methods of cultivation, with high productivity and adaptive qualities.

Key words: eggplant, source material, selection, signs, directions of use, stability, technology, heterosis.