The role of the interdisciplinary team in the breeding competitive apple and pear cultivars of the Russian research institute of fruit crop breeding

In the year of the 175th anniversary of the formation of the Orel Official Tree Nursery - now the Russian Research Institute of Fruit Crop Breeding, it is necessary to sum up the main results of apple and pear breeding over the past 65 years and note the role of a large well-coordinated team of researchers, laboratory assistants and other technical workers of various specialties: breeders, biochemists, cytoembryologists, phytopathologists, physiologists, technologists and others. Apple cultivars are subject to increasingly high requirements for many indicators, including: growth strength, immunity to diseases, early fruit production, regularity of fruiting, shape and size of fruits, their appearance, juiciness, taste, keeping quality, vitamin content, marketability of fruits, etc. It is difficult for a breeder to fulfill at least the basic requirements for apple cultivars. To create new apple cultivars that are competitive and adaptive to the growing conditions, interdisciplinary teams of the above-mentioned specialties are needed. This article describes the 65-year experience (1955-2020) of a large interdisciplinary team consisting of researchers and technicians - 18-20 people all in all. The article shows that out of 55 apple cultivars created during this time, only one cultivar - PamyatVoinu - was developed by the author without co-authors, two cultivars Orlik and OrlovskoePolosatoye were created by the author and one co-author, and the remaining 52 cultivars have three or more co-authors of different specialties. In addition to the authors of the cultivars and co-authors, a large group of researchers and technical workers also participate in the creation of new cultivars, without which it is impossible to give a complete description of the new cultivar. It usually takes several decades to create such interdisciplinary teams, but they can be destroyed with the stroke of a pen. I consider it necessary to note that at present it is impossible to create new competitive adaptive cultivars of apple, pear, and other fruit crops without large interdisciplinary efficient and well-coordinated teams.