A laboratory of applied agricultural biotechnology has recently been opened in Vyatka State Technical University, the press service of the university reports.
The opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Agriculture and Food of the region, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Kirov Region Aleksey Alekseevich Kotlyachkov, the rector of the Vyatka State Technical University Elena Sergeevna Simbirskikh, the director of Agrofirm Sredneivkino CJSC Nikolai Viktorovich Kharkin, as well as sponsors, with the help of which the necessary laboratory research equipment.
Solving the problem of providing the population of Russia with high-quality food potatoes corresponds to the priorities of the country's development. At the same time, this agricultural crop is very much affected by various diseases - fungal, bacterial and viral. The complexity of the fight against viral diseases of potatoes lies in the fact that there are no drugs against these pathogens, diagnosis is very difficult, since often the symptoms of diseases do not appear outwardly, which leads to an increase in viral infection when planting infected tubers.
The opening of a research and production and testing laboratory for applied agrobiotechnology will allow diagnosing phytopathogens, identifying genetically modified sources and obtaining virus-free seed material using the methods of apical meristem isolation and clonal selection.
“The project will have its own production and laboratory facilities, modern communication facilities, means of digitizing and processing large amounts of information,” commented Ekaterina Yuryevna Savinykh, head of the new laboratory, candidate of biological sciences, associate professor.