Main areas of research:

• Obtaining productive and strong individuums and populations by their selection and hybridization
• Conservation and renewal of valuable gene resources of forest tree species
• Variability and inheritance of commercially valuable features in forest species
• Developing and improving methods to clone selected material.

Findings:

• defined a current state and improved the evaluation methodology as well as selected objects to preserve gene resources;
• obtained new hybrid forms of Pinus, Quercus, Corylus;
• defined patterns in growth and development of plus tree progeny, hybrids and provenance of tree species; analysed mechanisms of their adaptation to climate change;
• defined perspective types and provenance of introduced species;
• improved methodologies to study mitotic activities in cells of deciduous and coniferous species; analysed methods carried out in vitro to clone species, hybrids and forms of Populus, Larix, Picea, Quercus, Corylus;
• laid 18 new plots with progeny test and 2 plots with provenance trial;
• cloned appr. 80 species and hybrids of Populus;
• created poplar seed trials for bioenergy needs;
• analysed regulatory documents related to preservation and sustainable utilization of forest-species genetic diversity and developed the "Recommendations on selecting, preserving and renewal of forest-species valuable gene resources in Ukraine", propositions to an updated version "Instruction on how to regulate forest resource of Ukraine", as well as introduced the updated version of "Recommendations for forest seed studies".

Research prospects :

• Creation of new and studying available selection objects by means of up-to-date cytological and molecular-genetic methods in order to further develop theoretical (variability and adaptation) and practical (forest seed practice, forest planting) aspects in forestry
• Impovement of methods for selecting, preserving and evaluating objects in both plantation and population sectors of selection considering species and regional peculiarities, forest site type, origin, purpose, adaptive potential, genetic characteristics of trees, etc.
• Extending works in producing and cloning new cultivars of forest species with the usage of methods of hybridisation, polyploidy and their combination, artificial mutagenesis, biotechnology and gene engineering. 

Possible collaborations:

• Prediction of how indigenous and introduced forest tree species will respond to climate change based on provenance tests
• Assessment of the suitability of Ukrainian hybrids of Populus and Salix for bioenergy plantation establishment
• Studying of adaptation mechanisms of introduced species and their impact upon forest ecosystems
• Optimizing the management and sustainable use of forest genetic resources in Ukraine
• Forest genetic resources conservation
• Development of reproductive material for forest stands and bioenergy plantations
• Studies on forest tree species biodiversity (genetics, cytology, anatomy, morphology, reproductive biology)
• Studies on tree growth using improved planting material (Pinus, Quercus, and Populus)
• Impact of climate change on tree growth and forest stand resistance (based on provenance tests)
• Development of strategies of in situ and ex situ forest gene resources conservation. Definition of genetic diversity level of gene pool conservation units (Pinus, Quercus, and Fagus).