The aim of the research is to study the gene pool of cultivars, lines, and accessions of soft winter wheat from various environmental and genetic origins of the world (USA, England, France, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, China, Syria, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, and Hungary) and assess their frost hardiness in conjunction with the crop yield. The experiment arrangement, implementation and results processing were done by conventional methods of N. P. Konstantinov, A. G. Wolf, B. A. Dospekhov, V. Ya. Yuryev. Cultivar of winter wheat, Don 95, which zoned in North-Caucasian and Lower Volga regions, was taken as a standard. Freezing of plants was carried out in a chamber KNT-1 by Kharkov method. The assessment of frost hardiness of selection material was done visually by five-point scale in the field after overwintering. As a result of the research, there were picked out for frost hardiness 13 best accessions of soft winter wheat: Russian samples – Donskoy mayak, Zarnitsa, Donshchina, Zernogradka 10, 1393/04, Pionerskay; Ukrainian – Perlina, Kiriya; Turkish – SANZAR, ECWD/14, Czech – Samanta; Netherlandian – Bersy; USA – SERI. It is established that the most hardiness (82.2 %) is intrinsic to cultivar Donskoy mayak. On average for the years of research, the best varieties by yield were Donskoy mayak (0.83 kg/m²), 1393/04 (0.80 kg/m²), Donshchina (0.78 kg/m²), Zernogradka 10 (0.76 kg/m²). It was determined that mentioned varieties had survivability of plants by 24.5 % in average higher than the rest selection material. Gliadin alleles 1A3, 1A4, 1V1, 1V7, 1D7, 6A1, 6V1, and 6D1 were presented in all picked out varieties. All studied accessions except ECWD/14 belong to the first group by the index of SDS-sedimentation; ECWD/14 belongs to the second group. All studied cultivars of soft winter wheat can be recommended for high and stable yield of grain production.
Keywords: frost hardiness, yield, soft winter wheat, survivability, SDS-sedimentation, gliadin.
