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Background. The processes occurring in plants and their seeds under stress, as well as the defense mechanisms used by plants under stress, are poorly understood, which makes it impossible to use them to increase yields. Purpose. Review and analysis of scientific publications, devoted to the phenomenon of stress memory acquired by plants as a result of physical stressors on their seeds and possible applications of this phenomenon in plant growing and crop breeding. Materials and methods. A selection and systematic review of scientific articles on the research topic for the period 2016-2023 was performed. The study consisted of the following steps: research literature search, evaluation and selection, data synthesis and analysis. Results. The use of hormetic effects of physical agents to stimulate seed germination of crops is effective. Responses to abiotic stresses could be 'trained' by priming so that the plant becomes better able to cope with later stress. Evidence of short-term and transgenerational memory formation following plant priming has been obtained. An epigenetic mechanism for the formation of long-term stress memory in plants as a result of a physical eustressor has been identified. The eustressor induces specific epigenetic marks associated with environmental adaptation, forming a new stress-resistant plant phenotype. Physical eustressors have the potential to impart stress tolerance to crops to enhance phenotypic characteristics to prevent yield losses. Conclusion. Seed treatment with physical stressors builds plant tolerance and memory to abiotic stresses, but scientific evidence on this issue is incomplete and sketchy. The understanding and application of stress memory for breeding purposes is currently limited, but it has great potential for the development of new crop varieties.

Deciphering the human genome, and further development of omics technologies, have opened new opportunities in studying the molecular mechanisms underlying the sport success. According to modern concepts of functional genomics, it is believed that individual differences in the degree of development of physical and mental qualities, as well as in the susceptibility to different diseases of athletes are largely due to DNA polymorphisms. Genetic markers associated with the development and manifestation of physical qualities (speed, strength, endurance, agility, flexibility) can be used in the sports selection system, to clarify sports specialization and to optimize the training process. Other molecular markers (methyl groups, trans­cripts, telomerase activity, telomeres, circulating DNA, metabolites, proteins, etc.) in addition to predicting athletic performance, allow assessing the current functional state of the athlete, including the phenomenon of overtraining. The purpose of this review is to provide data on the use of genomic, epigenetic, trans­criptomic, proteomic and metabolic methods in sports talent identification, assessing the current functional status of athletes and in the pres­cription of personal training and nutrition programs. Future research, including multicentre genome-wide association studies and whole-genome sequencing in large cohorts of athletes with further validation and replication, will substantially contribute to the discovery of large numbers of the causal genetic variants (mutations and DNA polymorphisms) that would partly explain the heritability of athlete status and related phenotypes.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that is a brilliant representative of the large family of autoimmune diseases remains to be, by and large, a disease that is far from being adequately investigated. This concerns the etiology and pathogenesis of the disease and effective approaches to its treatment. The review gives the data available in the literature on the role of epigenomic mechanisms regulating the functioning of genes in both immunocompetent cells and synovial fibroblasts, the major targets of autoimmune cells. The presence of a few sources of hypomethylated DNA in RA patients suggests that these molecules make a considerable contribution to the pathogenesis of the disease. Furthermore, the found hypermethylation of certain genes, besides the pathogenetic value of this phenomenon, may be used to develop new approaches to treating RA, which are based on the demethylation processes of these genes.

Multiple sclerosis is an extremely heterogeneous disease and, despite intensive research, no selective biomarkers have been identified for this pathology, and therefore its diagnosis in the early stages is still challenging. One of the most powerful tools for studying the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis is the multi-omics approach, which makes it possible to characterize cells involved in the disease progression in the most detailed and versatile way. This review will describe the current directions of research in multiple sclerosis using high-throughput technologies. Also, an assessment of the demand for the use of a multi-omics approach was carried out.

Whereas genome is identical in all types of tissue and relatively stable during the lifetime, the epigenome of the multicellular organism changes during development and aging. The strong effects of age on one of the central epigenetic modifications - DNA cytosine methylation levels have been identified by Dr. B.F.Vanyushin et al., in the A.N.Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology of MSU, Moscow, Russia in the 1960s. This discovery served as an impetus to numerous studies of DNA methylation, as a result of which it became possible not only to calculate with an amazing accuracy the age of the organism regardless of its physiological indices, but also to reveal pathological changes in it. Moreover, in the future, these discoveries can promote the development of a new direction of therapy - epigenetic therapy.

All cells of a multicellular eukaryotic organism carry almost the same genome, still they obviously demonstrate phenotypes of very divergent kinds. The most probable explanation of the divergence is that different groups of genes are expressed in cells of different types. Expression is regulated at all steps between DNA and a protein, but transcription regulation is the most common regulatory mechanism. Transcription factors, which bind to specific areas of chromatin, can mediate the regulation. Their binding depends on the chromatin structure, which drastically differs among cell types. The key role in the structural organization is played by covalent histone modifications in chromatin. A combination of particular modifications in a chromatin region determines its structure and, consequently, its accessibility for enzymes. The best studied histone modifications are described in the review. Each modification has its specific mechanism that the cell uses to establish or to eliminate it. Activity of various Polycomb complexes is a key mechanism that represses chromatin and plays a central role, for example, in cell differentiation. The compositions and functionality of Polycomb complexes in various species are considered. Owing to modern experimental techniques, ample data are currently available for histone modifications and other epigenomic features of chromatin in various tissues and organisms, allowing bioinformatic investigation of the epigenome. Many computational and visualization methods have been developed for such studies, and the main of them are covered in the review.