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The genus Paeonia L. includes both popular ornamental and medicinal plants with a rich history of cultivation and breeding. Breeding is an important process of increasing the diversity of the assortment and creating new cultivars of peonies with various economically important characteristics, such as the shape and color of flowers, different flowering periods and resistance to diseases and abiotic stressors. The main methods used in the breeding of peonies are traditional methods, including intraspecific, interspecific and intersectional hybridization, however, such factors as a long reproduction cycle and the complexity of the breeding process limit the possibilities for good progress in this work. The application of methods of biotechnology and molecular genetics make the breeding process more efficient. The use of germplasm resources and hybridization will accelerate the process of creating new cultivars not only with various decorative features, but also those with high adaptability to biotic and abiotic factors and resistance to phytopathogens and diseases. This review highlights the history of domestic and foreign breeding, modern trends and methodology of peony breeding. Information is provided on the achievements and limitations that exist in the field of molecular biological study of peonies.

Ornamental plants are widespread and popular all over the world. Floriculture industry is of significant economic importance for some countries. Favorable prospects for the development of industrial floriculture were also noted for Russia. This can be facilitated by CRISPR/Cas, a breakthrough method of editing genes responsible for economically valuable traits of plants, which allows bypassing the limitations of the potential intraspecific variability of plants and solving the problem of obtaining non-transgenic modified plants. This article analyzes the current status of ornamental crop breeding using the CRISPR/Cas genetic editing method. The articles were selected from the Scopus database. A search encompassing 50 most common ornamental crops yielded the total of 26 articles on genetic editing using the CRISPR/Cas system, in particular: 8 articles featuring petunia; 1 per each crop on chrysanthemum, kalanchoe, poinsettia and tobacco; 2 per each on dendrobium, gentian, lily and torenia, and 3 per each on phalaenopsis and ipomoea. The found articles were divided into three groups. The first group includes works devoted to studies of mechanisms of genes controlling useful traits, as well as the optimization of the CRISPR/Cas method for a particular crop. The second group unites works aimed at modifying color of flowers and leaves. The third group includes works on increasing the life span of a flower and obtaining double flowers. The review offers the works on the optimization of gene editing in representatives of the orchid family Orchidaceae Juss. Also, it notes the prospects of gene editing by the CRISPR/Cas system, which can accelerate qualitative improvements in breeding and raise it effectiveness, it being especially important in present conditions.

The breeding of ornamental plants as a branch of crop production is an integral part of the set of measures aimed at obtaining a wide range of different plants with high decorative characteristics. The main objective of this branch is the creation of plants that are attractive to the consumer and commercially characterized by such valuable biological features as adaptability, resistance to diseases, pests, frost and others. Most ornamental plant varieties were bred by means of traditional breeding methods such as selection, distant hybridization, clone breeding, radiation and chemically induced mutagenesis. However, the use of traditional breeding tools is limited by the potential for intraspecific variability. The development of modern biotechnological and genetic approaches to the breeding of new varieties has made it possible to modify the plant genotype at a qualitatively new level. The present review covers the directions in and methodology of modern ornamental plant breeding in Russia, ways of mobilizing the genetic resources of the main ornamental crops such as rose, clematis, canna, chrysanthemum, pelargonia, iris, daylily, tulip, lilac, and rhododendron. Aslo, the review offers examples of ornamental plant breeding work uderway in the leading specialized scientific institutions such as the Russian State Agrarian University – the K.A. Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy, I.V. Michurin Federal Research Centre, Nikitsky Botanical Gardens – National Scientific Center of the RAS, Subtropical Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Botanical Garden of the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Tobacco, Mahorka and Tobacco Products. The world and Russian flower and ornamental plants markets, the problem and methods of resolving the issue of quality import substitution, and prospects for the development of floriculture in Russia in the foreseeable future are also briefly considered.