Cultivation of Bread Wheat in Russia—From the Early Middle Ages to the Last Years of the Russian Empire (Review)
摘要
Bread wheat Triticum aestivum L. (2n = 6x = 42, BBAADD) is one of the most important agricultural crops that has accompanied humans since the first human civilizations. It emerged nearly 10 000 BP presumably in the northwestern part of Iran from natural hybridization of tetraploid wheat (2n = 4x = 28, BBAA) and wild goatgrass Ae. tauschii (2n = 2x = 14, DD) and then gradually spread along with human migrations to Europe, Asia and Africa, and later to America and Australia. The routes and time of wheat expansion have been the subject of numerous studies using both archaeological and historical, as well as modern molecular genetic methods. At the same time, the history of the appearance and spread of bread wheat over Russian territory was poorly reflected in these works, mainly because most papers in this area were published in local Russian journals that are not translated into English and are not accessible to the world scientific community. In this regard, we tried to summarize the data accumulated so far on the history of wheat cultivation in Russia from the emergence of agriculture in Ancient Rus’ until the advent of scientific breeding (early 20th century).