Merezhko, Anatoly Fedorovich

Born in with. Rzhevka Rivne district of the Belgorod region .

In 1962 he graduated from the Agronomy Department of the Voronezh Agricultural Institute .

He began his career in 1962 in Suzdal at the Vladimir State Agricultural Experimental Station (now the Vladimir Research Institute of Agriculture), a member of the CPSU.

In 1967 , he was appointed head of the wheat laboratory at the Kuban experimental station VIR and combined his work with distance learning at the graduate school of the All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Production named after N. I. Vavilov.

In 1970 he defended his thesis at the N. I. Vavilov All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Production (scientific adviser is academician of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences V. F. Dorofeev).

In 1973 , he interned at CIMMYT (International Center for the Selection of Wheat and Corn, leader - Nobel Laureate N.E. Borloug ).

In 1990, he defended his doctoral dissertation at St. Petersburg State University , and in 1995 received the title of professor with a degree in genetics.

He began scientific work in 1966. Until 1973, he headed the department of grain crops of the Kuban experimental station VIR. Then he worked as a senior researcher in the wheat department of VIR. In 1976-78 he conducted research at a pilot site in Mexico. From 1980 to 1995, he worked as the head of the departments of genetics and then wheat, and from 1996, he was the chief scientific employee of the institute ^[1] .

From 1980 to 1986 He was a representative of the USSR in the Committee of Genetic Banks of Eucarpia, and from 1986 to 1992. - Member of the Central Council of this organization ^[1] .

He was a member of the scientific council of VIR and three dissertation councils of the Higher Attestation Commission in the specialty "Genetics". He worked in the Central Council and the Presidium of VOGiS, led the section "Plant Genetics". He was a member of the international committee of genebanks and the representative of Russia in the central council of EUCARPIA. He was a member of the international committee for coordination of work in the World Network of Wheat Genetic Resources. He delivered keynote speeches at international forums. Repeatedly visited abroad in order to exchange scientific experience and collect plant resources. The most fruitful expeditions were in Mexico (1977), Peru (1980) and the USA (1990), when valuable forms of lupine, potato, corn, and sunflower were collected; pumpkin and grain crops; cuttings of fruit trees.

A. F. Merezhko performed the work to identify and create donors of breeding valuable traits of wheat ^[2] .

He carried out original studies on the genetics of hybrid necrosis, plant height, early maturity and photoperiodic sensitivity, resistance to brown rust of wheat and triticale . ^[3]

Theoretically substantiated and put into practice a system for searching, creating and using valuable plant traits in donor selection.

He proposed new approaches to the genetic analysis of quantitative variability and developed computer programs for their implementation ^[4] .

He is the author of the varieties: early ripe strong spring wheat Fora, spelled - Fleece and spring triticale - Golden scallop.

He is a co-author of a variety of soft spring wheat Virovskaya 1 (PpdS) (RF Patent No. 3601), soft spring wheat Virovskaya 2 (Ppdm) (RF Patent No. 3602), soft spring wheat Virovskaya 3 (Ppdw) (RF Patent No. 3603), soft wheat spring Virovskaya 4 (Ppd0) (RF Patent No. 3604) ^[5] .

He paid great attention to the development of selection of triticale and the expansion of its crops to diversify fodder production in the Non-Chernozem region.

He created the spelled lines with an unbreakable spike and a light threshing, which created the prerequisites for the return of this culture to the fields of Russia.

He prepared seven candidates and two doctors of sciences (including N.P. Goncharov ).

He has published more than 120 scientific papers in domestic and foreign publications, is the author of two and co-author of six books. Among them are “World Wheat” (1966, 1987), “The Problem of Donors in Plant Breeding” (1994), “Mendelian Approach to Describing the Inheritance of Quantitative Differences” (2000), “The world wheat book: a history of wheat breeding” (2001), “Identified Plant Gene Pool and Breeding” (2005).