November 25, 2012 the international scientific community of geneticists and plant breeders will be celebrating the 125thanniversary of the birth of botanist and genetics, agronomist, geographer and founder of the national school of biology and breeding, Academician Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov. A III-rd International Scientific-Practical Conference «Modern trends in plant breeding and seed production of vegetable crops. Traditions and Prospects» took place in VNIISSOK in August 2012, dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the birth of the scientist.

We made an analysis of the status and development of tomato production in Bulgaria after its transition to a market economy and accession to the European Union. The problems encountered in the single market are shown. A brief description of the development of tomato breeding is given. The advantages and disadvantages of foreign and Bulgarian tomato varieties, directions of research with an emphasis on flavor and antioxidant properties of fruits are shown. The basic ways of overcoming the crisis and the need to protect the interests and positions of the country in the development of EU Common Agricultural Policy in 2014 - 2020 are described.

Sakhalin island is one of the regions of Russia with extreme climatic conditions. The first scientist in the field of biology, agriculture, and agro-ecology of Sakhalin region was Zimina Tatiana Alekseevna, Doctor of agricultural science. On the 26th November of 2011 the scientific community of genetics and plant breeders celebrated the 90-th birthday of Zimina T.A. The stuff of VNIISSOK cherish the memory of her as one of the talented scientist and devotee citizen.

The significance of world germplasm collection of vegetable crops and their wild relatives developed by Vavilov N.I. for scientific and breeding purposes are undertaken in the article.

Study of morphological parameters of seeds is of interest for the enhancement of quality of produced seeds vegetable Umbelliferae plants. Indicators of the linear dimensions of the embryo, endosperm, seed, and the degree of variability can be used for additional performance of a lot of seeds. Knowledge of morphology of heterogeneity of seeds should be taken into account in their growing, sorting, storage and presowing refinement.

After many years of breeding work in the laboratory of plant breeding and seed production of floral crops of VNIISSOK five varieties of bearded iris (Hybrid) have been developed: St. George, Breeze, Zhirafik, Maestro, Elegy, with the original color of flowers that are resistant to adverse weather conditions (rain, hail, etc. etc.), as well as to diseases and pests, heat and winter resistance.

Aspects of scientific and technical bilateral collaboration on plant breeding and seed production between All-Russian Research Institute of Vegetable Breeding and Seed Production and Ministry of Agriculture, Heavy and Light Industry in Mongolia were considered. The protocol has been signed for the period of 5 years.

9-23 August, 2011 Russian-Kazakh-Japanese expedition around south territory of Kazakhstan was conducted and the resulting 145 accessions of local and new entries of melon, watermelon, pumpkin and cucumber were gathered to be included into genetic collection of Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry. To all these accessions have been given a detailed description based on morphological, economical and biochemical characteristics.

The challenges concerning the development of cabbage seed management and production in Russia are to be resolved by combined approaches in order to fully supply the vegetable market and population with home-selected varieties and heterosis hybrids.

The morphological marker characteristics of the flower and cytological features of microgametogenesis and microsporo-genesis in sterile plants have been studied to identify and select plants bearing Ogura male sterility type. As result of analysis of hybrid plants and inbreeding progenies based on male sterile form of Japanese radish the three groups of progenies were observed with 100 % of sterile plants, all of them are to be the initial breeding lines for production of radish hybrids F1.