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Background. Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) is the main berry crop in the horticultural production of Altai Territory and occupies the largest growing area among berries in Russia. Meanwhile, further expansion of commercial plantations is limited by known bottlenecks in harvesting. In this context, new technological solutions in harvest mechanization are considered one of the primary tasks. A promising way is the cutting of fruit-bearing branches. At the same time, the development of cultivars suitable for such harvesting technique is very important.Materials and methods. Thirteen cultivars and selected forms of sea buckthorn developed at the Federal Altai Scientific Center of Agro-Biotechnologies were taken as research material. To evaluate the productivity of top branches, three of them with a length of 70–100 cm were cut from the plants of each accession. Fruit detachment force was assessed using a Dina-2 device. Dispersion analysis was applied for statistical interpretation.Results. Productivity of top branches as well as agronomic and biological characteristics of sea buckthorn fruits were studied. Accessions 87-93-1, 111-05-3 and 378-06-1 were identified for high productivity of their top branches and for predomination of the generative part over the vegetative one. The highest number of berries per bud (5.4–5.9 pieces) was observed in accessions 87-93-4, 32-01-1, 378-06-1 and 111-05-3. Cv. ‘Afina’ demonstrated for its high level of vegetative and generative productivity. Selected forms 111-05-3, 32-01-1 and 4-93-11 with low fruit detachment force (136.8–155.1 g) are promising for shaking without prior freezing.Conclusion. Selected forms 111-05-3, 378-06-1 and 32-01-1 were recognized as most promising for harvesting by branch cutting.

Sea buckthorn, despite of high popularity at the moment, is not a common object of genetic researches. Some efforts of foreign scientists in this field are concerned with only big systematic groups like species and subspecies. At the same time genetic researches inside of subspecies mongolica growing in Siberia till recently have not been started. There are too many so called ecotypes of sea buckthorn belonging to Hippophae rhamnoides ssp. mongolica growing in different environmentally-geographical areas. That is why the task of deep genetic research of that subspecies is very important. The absence of an approved procedure of genome definition for Siberian sea buckthorn makes the above task quite complicated. That is why the main aim of the current investigation was developing a procedure of ISSR-analysis for sea buckthorn growing in Siberia, as well as preliminary estimation of genetic polymorphism of sea buckthorn varieties belonging to different environmentally-geographical areas by methods of molecular markers. As a result, the procedure of ISSR-analysis for sea buckthorn growing in Siberia has been developed. From 32 estimated ISSR-markers only 6 have been educed as effective for ISSR-locus polymorphism evaluation of sea buckthorn. The annealing temperature for each primer has been found. Analyses of ISSR-markers polymorphism as well as genetic diversity of 17 sea buckthorn varieties have been done. ISSR-spectrum analyses of sea buckthorn plants have educed 56 amplified DNA fragments, 36 of them were polymorphic. According to obtained data a dendrogram of genetic affinity of evaluated varieties has been built, where one variety generates one cluster. In general, it conforms to the idea that one species is divided into subspecies and one subspecies is divided into different ecotypes. As a result of cluster analyses all investigated varieties were divided into two big groups. The first includes varieties belonging to H. rhamnoides ssp. mongolica, H. rhamnoides ssp. rhamnoides, H. rhamnoides ssp. caucasica; the second includes Danube and Yutlandian ecotypes belonging to H. rhamnoides ssp. carpatica. The occurrence of H. rhamnoides ssp. rhamnoides and H. rhamnoides ssp. caucasica inside the first group allows us to make an assumption about their closer genetic relationship with H. rhamnoides ssp. mongolica, which is consistent with their similar morphological features. Revealed ISSR-locus polymorphism as well as the results of clusters analyses allows ISSR-analyses to be recommended for sea buckthorn variability evaluation as well as for genotyping varieties.

Green cutting propagation technologies of seabuckthorn ( Hippophae rhamnoides L.) are well developed and highly effective under optimal parameters of implementation. Differences in root development in most cases are connected with varietal specificity. In conditions of uncovered greenhouses, weather particularities can influence significantly on development of cuttings. Hence, the aim of investigation was to study the cultivar difference in root development of seabuckthorn green cuttings in a long-term industrial-scale experiment in conditions of uncovered greenhouse facilities. The experiments were carried out in forest-steppe area of Altai krai in 2018-2021. Seventeen seabuckthorn cultivars developed by Federal Altai Scientific Center of Agrobiotechnologies were taken as research objects. Significant varietal specificity of rooting ability of green cuttings has been established. The experiments showed that season particularities just slightly affect this parameter, indicating significant homeostasis of seabuckthorn cultivars in this regard. Altaiskaya, Ognivo, Gnom, Ethna, Elizaveta and Athena varieties showed the highest level of rhizogenesis with everage rooting percentage from 91.2 to 95.5 %. Group of low rooted cultivars included Azhurnaya, Aurelia, Zlata, Sudarushka and Avgustina with rooting percentage from 70.5 to 79.7 %. Other cultivars showed intermediate figures. High correlation level (0.590.21) was shown between total root quality and rhizogenesis ability. Cultivars which demonstrated high rooting percentage also formed high level of first grade seedlings. In this regard, the best cultivars were Altaiskaya, Gnom and Ognivo, which formed 79.1, 82.1 and 83.8 % of first-grade seedlings, respectively. Low rooting ability was observed in cultivars Avgustina, Sudarushka and Zlata, which provided only 55.464.4 % of first-grade planting material. The variation coefficient of seabuckthorn standard seedlings was low and did not exceed 9.7 % for Avgustina cultivar. The variation of seedlings quality was at a higher level - u p to 27.3 % for cv. Sudarushka, however, for the rest of the cultivars it was low or medium and ranged from 2.7 to 18.7 %. According to the results of cluster analysis, the seabuckthorn cultivars were divided into three separate groups - slow-, medium- and fast-to-root genotypes.

Seabuckthorn gene pool in collections of Lisavenko Research Institute of Horticulture for Siberia which is a division of the Federal Altai Scientific Center of Agro-BioTechnologies is represented by more than 14 thousand hybrid seedlings and over 450 varieties under selection. It allows to provide comprehensive selection on different agronomic traits and to achieve permanent assortment improvement. The main aim of the research was to select seabuckthorn varieties distinguished by characteristics that meet the requests of industrial sector with focus on various technological approaches. Seabuckthorn varieties of hybrid origin from crossbreeding of 1993-2005 were studied. The experiments were carried out in forest-steppe zone of Altai Krai in 2016-2020. According to the results of comprehensive evaluation, groups of the most promising varieties were proposed as a source of various agronomic traits. The potential of breeding activity was shown as well as possibility of seabuckthorn assortment improving was proved. In particular, within sweet-fruited varieties such samples as 57-01-1, 146-02-1 and 226-00-1 with sugar-acid index of 6.4, 5.4 and 5.3, respectively, have been selected as well as fruit of 198-99-3a and 62-01-2 varieties weighed about 1.0 g, that is almost 0.3 g higher compared to Chuiskaya variety (control) and Altaiskaya (the sweetest one). Two varieties - 149-00-3 and 664-00-2 - were included to the group with very low tear-off force of fruits - 95 and 110 g, respectively, which was significantly lower compared to the control (Chuiskaya) and the standard variety (Anastasia). That means high suitability of these varieties for harvesting by hand picking. The hybrid 185-99-5 had an average fruit weight of 1.67 g which was two times higher than fruit weight of the control variety. Highly promising red colored variety (258-03-1) had high oil content in fruits. That positions it as an extremely promising variety for seabuckthorn oil concentrate processing. Most of estimated varieties were included in various reference groups demonstrating by that the combination of agronomic traits.