The year 2002 marks the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Dr. Svitlana V. Rabinovych, world-renown scientist and specialist in plant breeding and genetic resources. The greater part of her creative activity has been dedicated to wheat. Dr. Rabinovych is the first author of many thorough publications in the Annual Wheat Newsletter in which are presented the genealogy of wheat cultivars from different world regions.
Dr. Rabinovych was born on 1 October, 1932. Her father, Dr. Vitaly M. Rabinovych, was well-known agronomist and breeder of fodder crops, in particular alfalfa. Her mother was of the Vasilevsky family, her cousin was the outstanding philosopher and archpriest Alexander Men.
In 1954, she received a degree at Kharkiv Agricultural Institute n.a. V.V. Dokuchayev and was appointed as an agronomist, plant breeder, and seed producer. Dr. Rabinovych worked in the Myrgorod State Variety Test Station (1954), the Forage Production Department of Research Institute for Livestock-Farming of Forest-Steppe of the Ukraine (1955-1957); and for more than 45 years, from February 1957 till the present, at the Institute of Plant Production n.a. V.J. Yurjev of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences (UAAS). Beginning as a main laboratory assistant, Dr. Rabinovych was promoted to junior research worker, senior research worker, manager of the Sector for Plant Resources, and main research worker of the National Centre for Plant Genetic Resources of the Ukraine.
In 1965, in Kharkiv (Ukraine), she defended a thesis for a degree of Candidate in Agricultural Sciences on the subject 'Agroecological study of winter wheat accessions of different geographical origin in East Forest-Steppe of Ukrainian SSR'. In 1975, in Chisheneu, Moldova, she completed the degree of Doctor in Agricultural Sciences with the monograph 'Modern wheat varieties and their pedigrees.'
The principal directions of Dr. Rabinovych's science activity are the collection, study, conservation, and introduction into breeding process of plant genetic resources, in particular of the cereals wheat, rye, and triticale. This work was begun under the leadership of Prof. L.M. Delone in 1956 and became the basis for the creation of the National Collection (Genebank) of these crops in the 1990s. She, together with her coworkers, have studied the complex economic and valuable traits of more than 20,000 cultivars and forms grown in the conditions of northeast Ukraine.
Dr. Rabinovych collected and published or prepared for publication information about the pedigrees of more than 3,000 varieties and lines of wheat from all countries of the five continents where wheat is grown. She has analyzed the specificity, direction, and initial material for wheat breeding of all wheat-growing countries of the world. In the last several years, she has generalized and systematized information about world wheat breeding and the presence of identified genes that control resistance to diseases and pests, grain quality, and its elements, including composition of gliadins and glutenins according to electrophoretic analysis data, in the world genepool. She has carried out an historical analysis on the use of Ukrainian cultivars and their descendants and of rye genetic material in the state of chromosomal translocation, substitution, and addition lines in wheat lines of the world.
The strategy for selecting initial material for wheat breeding is different for different regions of the world is the basis of genepool study and pedigree analysis. Dr. Rabinovych substantiated the concept of the 'cultivar-creating ability of the germ plasm accession'. She conducted substantial research in the field of the history of biological and agricultural science development in the Ukraine. The results of her work are published in more than 180 papers including
- Rabinovych SV. 1972. Modern wheat varieties and their pedigrees. Urozhay, Kyiv. 328 pp. (in Russian);
- Rabinovych SV. 1998. Importance of wheat-rye translocation for breeding modern cultivars of Triticum aestivum L. Euphytica 100:323-340;
- Rabinovych SV. 1976. Initial forms for breeding of new varieties of triticale. Triticale: problems and perspectives. Part I. Genetics and breeding of triticale. Collected science articles. Kamennaya Step', 13(1):101-105 (in Russian); and
- Manzyuk VT, Rabinovych SV, Wolf VG, Rusakovsky SJa, Lykhar' DF, and Malusha KB. 1985. Development of breeding researches. Achievements in agricultural crops breeding. Development of biology in the Ukraine. V.II. Development of botanical researches, physiology and biochemistry, introduction and acclimatization, plant genetics and breeding, microbiology during the years of Soviet power. Kyiv, Naukova Dumka pp. 307-356 (in Russian).
Dr. Rabinovych actively participates in many conferences at the regional and global levels on the topics of wheat, rye, and triticale breeding and genetic resources. During 1981-85, she was member of the Coordination Board on Winter Wheat Breeding of All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences n.a. V.I. Lenin (former USSR). She is member of the Specialized Academic Council on defense of Doctor and Candidate Theses of the Institute of Plant Production n.a. V.J. Yurjev of UAAS.
We wish Dr. Svitlana Rabinovych much happiness, robust health, and every creative success. We hope to read much more of her interesting and useful contributions in this newsletter.