CONGRESS OF THE UKRAINIAN BOTANICAL SOCIETY

The 15th congress of the Ukrainian Botanical Society was held from September 30 to October 3 in Ivano-Frankivsk. It was organized by the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany ·of NAS of Ukraine, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, and Kherson State University. In the section "Biotechnology, Physiology and Biochemistry. Cellular and Molecular Biology", researchers of the Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry of the Yuriev Plant Production Institute, in co-authorship with their colleagues from the State Biotechnology University (SBU), presented three oral presentations at a video conference. Two of them were about mechanisms of the stress-protective effects of new bioregulators, so-called plant neurotransmitters - gamma-aminobutyric acid and melatonin. For the first time, Professor Yurii Kolupaev and Junior Researcher Ivan Shakhov showed that gamma-aminobutyric acid was able to increase the resistance of triticale to drought and salt stress and revealed the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of these effects. Jointly with their colleagues from the SBU, Professor Yurii Karpets and Post-Graduate Student Dmytro Taraban, the Laboratory also investigates the effects of melatonin on the germination of cereal grains with artificially reduced germinability. The ability of this new plant hormone to promote plant growth under normal and stressful conditions was demonstrated. Candidate of Biological Sciences Tetiana Yastreb presented results on dehydrin synthesis in wheat plants in response to simulated drought. For the first time, in this study (conducted jointly with the Crop Research Institute [Prague, Czech Republic]), etiolated seedlings were shown to be able to synthesize such protective proteins. Varietal differences in dehydrin patterns were found. These results are not only of great fundamental importance but can also be used in assessments of drought resistance of cereals in the early phases of development.