Functional nutrition is a valuable supplementation to dietary therapy. Functional foods are enriched with biologically active substances. Plant polyphenols attract particular attention due to multiple beneficial properties attributed to their high antioxidant and other biological activities. We assessed the effect of grape polyphenols on the life span of C57BL/6 mice and on behavioral and neuroinflammatory alterations in a transgenic mouse model of Parkinson disease (PD) with overexpression of the A53T-mutant human α-synuclein. C57BL/6 mice were given a dietary supplement containing grape polyphenol concentrate (GPC—1.5 mL/kg/day) with drinking water from the age of 6–8 weeks for life. Transgenic PD mice received GPC beginning at the age of 10 weeks for four months. GPC significantly influenced the cumulative proportion of surviving and substantially augmented the average life span in mice. In the transgenic PD model, the grape polyphenol (GP) diet enhanced memory reconsolidation and diminished memory extinction in a passive avoidance test. Behavioral effects of GP treatment were accompanied by a decrease in α-synuclein accumulation in the frontal cortex and a reduction in the expression of neuroinflammatory markers (IBA1 and CD54) in the frontal cortex and hippocampus. Thus, a GP-rich diet is recommended as promising functional nutrition for aging people and patients with neurodegenerative disorders.

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.

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Grapevine is one of the world’s most economically important fruit crops. It is known that Vitis vinifera is a host for a large number of pathogenic agents, which significantly reduce the yield and berry quality. This forces the agronomists to use a huge amount of fungicides. Over the last few decades, alternative methods for solving this problem have been developed and continue to be developed. Such new technologies as marker-assisted selection, bioengineering of the rhizosphere, genetic engineering (transgenesis, cisgenesis and intragenesis) allow the production of pathogen-resistant cultivars. However, they are linked to a number of problems. One of the most promising methods is the creation of modified non-transgenic cultivars via CRISPR/Cas9-targeted mutagenesis. Therefore, researchers are actively looking for target genes associated with pathogen resistance and susceptibility. This review elucidates the main mechanisms of plant—pathogen interactions, the immune systems developed by plants, as well as the identified genes for resistance and susceptibility to the biotrophic pathogen Erysiphe necator and the necrotrophic pathogen Botrytis cinerea.

Fruit and berry crops, as well as grapes, are important parts of the human diet and, at the same time, significant objects of genetic, breeding, biochemical and nutritional research. Traditional approaches of crop research and improvement are now complemented by effective modern genetic technologies. In this review, we analyze and summarize the achievements in genome editing of fruit, berry crops and grapes. New approaches accelerate the improvement of genotypes for many groups of traits: plant resistance to unfavorable environmental factors, flowering and ripening time, plant architectonics, fruit shelf time and biochemical composition. Genome editing using the CRISPR/Cas9 system has been successfully tested on the most important vegetatively propagated fruit and berry crops (apple, pear, orange, kumquat, grapefruit, banana, strawberry and kiwi) and grapes. About 30 genes of these crops have been used as targets for the introduction of desired mutations using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. The most valuable results are the improvement of important agronomic traits. For 24 genes it has been shown that their knockout can result in the improvement of varieties. In addition, the review pays attention to the comparative analysis of the explant types of vegetatively propagated crops used for the delivery of editing genetic constructs, as well as the comparison of the editing efficiency depending on the variation of the objects used, delivery methods, etc. The article discusses the existing limitations that need to be overcome for a wider application of genomic editing in order to improve varieties of fruit and berry crops, as well as grapes.

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Today the range of crops, which are studied and improved with the help of genetic editing technologies, in particular with CRISPR/Cas system, is actively expanding. High accuracy, ease of editing tools application and relative cheapness allow the use of this method in research in various fi elds of biology. The present systematic review summarizes the global experience of editing the genome of fruit and small fruit crops using the CRISPR/Cas9 tool and considers the prospect of using this newest biotechnological approach for crop improvement. The systematic review employed one of the most authoritative internet resources indexing the reviewed scientifi c publications, such as the Scopus database. By systematic search concerning 37 species of fruit and small fruit crops 115 publications were found, among which 26 described original research on CRISPR/Cas system application to fruit and small fruit crops. A total of 21 target genes have been edited in 8 crops. Some of the studies are consecrated to the approbation of the method or establishing/clarifying the functions of the target genes by their knockout. In the review we distinguished the publications describing application of gene editing tools for improving the properties of plants. By now 12 target genes have been successfully edited in fruit and small fruit plants. The main type of modifi cation is the knockout, which is aimed at negative regulators of the factors of resistance to pathogens or at changing the morphology of plants. In most cases the modifi ed plants have the desired characteristics and have been tested for resistance to pathogens by laboratory tests. It is discussed how much the target mutagenesis application to fruit and small fruit crops can be broadened in future.

Recently, the trend of using fruit and berry crops as ingredients for functional and dietary nutrition, the development and implementation of f lavors, pigments, new medicines and dietary supplements has been actualized. Because the direction of use depends on the biochemical properties of fruits, which are determined not only by species and varietal characteristics, but also by reproduction conditions, the study of the biochemical composition of fruits grown in various regions of the world continues to be relevant. In this regard, the collection of N.I. Vavilov Institute (VIR), which has a wide diversity of fruit and berry crops, is of great interest for study. Ribes nigrum fruits have a balanced set of sugars, organic acids, essential oils, microelements, a high content of vitamins, anthocyanins, pectins. Lonicera caerulea fruits are characterized by high values of phenolic substances: biof lavonoids, hydroxycinnamic acids, f lavonols, polyphenols, anthocyanins, as well as vitamins, carotenoids, iridoid glycosides and other natural antioxidants. The investigation of L. caerulea and R. nigrum fruit's accessions from the VIR collection using gas-liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry allows us to obtain new information about the biochemical characteristics of fruits, to identify L. caerulea and R. nigrum varieties with optimal economically valuable characteristics, to determine the specif icity of L. caerulea and R. nigrum metabolomic spectra in the setting of Northwest Russia. As a result of the analysis, typical compounds of the metabolomic prof ile of each culture were identif ied. Organic acids, phenol-containing compounds and polyols prevailed in L. caerulea, while mono-and oligosaccharides, in R. nigrum. The qualitative composition of the black currant varieties 'Malen'kii Printz' , 'Dobriyi Dzhinn' , 'Tisel' , 'Orlovskii Val's' , and blue honeysuckle 'S 322-4' , 'Malvina' , 'Leningradsky Velikan' was optimal for food consumption; the varieties of blue honeysuckle 'Bazhovskaya' and black currant 'Aleander' had a good representation of biologically active compounds, which makes samples attractive as raw materials for the production of biologically active additives, including with the use of microorganisms' cultures.