FOREIGN AND RUSSIAN BREEDING OF JUJUBE: ACHIEVEMENTS AND PROSPECTS

The paper systematizes information on jujube breeding, presents historical and recent scientific achievements, as well as prospects for breeding work with jujube abroad and in Russia. The leading Breeding Centre of jujube Ziziphus jujuba Mill. is China, where there are about 900 cultivars of the crop. According to application targets, modern jujube cultivars can be divided into dessert cultivars, as well as cultivars for drying, for candied fruit production, for universal use and ornamental ones. The global jujube assortment is represented by Chinese cultivars on more than 90 %. Mainly Chinese, Central Asian and a number of local cultivars and forms are grown in Russia. In China, the search for and allocation of new crop cultivars primarily occurs from natural populations of a species that is grown over vast areas. Isolation from free pollination seedlings is of great importance for jujube breeding. This method is also used by plant breeding breeders from other countries. The use of traditional artificial jujube hybridization faces a number of difficulties (related to the biological characteristics of the crop) and has not yet allowed scientists to obtain cultivars that meet the requirements of modern production. To increase the efficiency of hybridization, Chinese scientists carry out controlled crosses using genotypes with male sterility, with complete isolation of the parent trees, applying bees for pollen transfer. Biotechnology methods are used to grow hybrid plants from underdeveloped germs. Experimental mutagenesis is becoming a promising breeding method in Russia. The Russian State Register of Breeding Achievements contains 3 jujube cultivars obtained by mutagenesis – ‘Sinite’, ‘Tsuckerkovyi’, ‘Yalita’. The development of global genetic research contributes to the identification of existing jujube cultivars, as well as creates the foundations for the molecular breeding of this crop.