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About institute

Agricultural microbiology has its origins in our Homeland since 1891, when the first Agricultural Bacteriological Laboratory for the use of microorganisms to control rodents was established in St. Petersburg at the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property. Literally, its tasks looked as follows: "the laboratory, meeting the urgent needs of rural owners, had, first of all, to take on the difficult work of reorganizing the methods of bacteriological pest control of agriculture, which, as is known, consists in the implementation of the idea of artificial spread of common diseases among harmful animals."

It was founded by such outstanding microbiologists as S.S. Merezhkovsky, B.L. Isachenko and others. Enthusiasm for microbiological work was great at that time and microbiology was actively gaining ground. Agricultural microbiology was also on the rise, suffice it to say that it was at this time that B.L. Isachenko began to teach a course in agricultural bacteriology for students of St. Petersburg Imperial University. And, although the main focus, as before, remained work on "mouse-killing" microorganisms, work was carried out in the laboratory on the microbiology of winemaking, cheese making and other topical issues. The laboratory's activities have played a huge role in promoting microbiological achievements and their introduction into the practice of agricultural production in Russia.

The very creation of the All-Union Institute of Agricultural Microbiology took place in 1930 under the leadership of the outstanding biologist Sergei Pavlovich Kostychev. It is no coincidence that he was the one who stood at the origins of the new institute. On the one hand, his father, P.A. Kostychev, was one of the first scientists who understood the role of microorganisms in the soil formation process and was able to outline a number of problems that remain relevant to this day. On the other hand, Sergey Pavlovich, being a physiologist and biochemist, understood well the connections that exist in nature and, probably, therefore headed the department of the Relationship between microorganisms and plants. From the very beginning, the Institute was focused both on serious fundamental work and on the immediate use of successful solutions found in practice. The field of activity of the Institute has been and remains a wide group of microorganisms, which plays a decisive role in the soil formation process, the formation of agrophytocenoses, and the biological control of a number of important plant diseases and pests. At the same time, one of the most important achievements of the institute is the involvement in the practice of agricultural use of all new species of bacteria and fungi, the establishment of their useful functions, the development of practical techniques for their use.

During the reorganization of the VASKHNIL system (now the Russian Agricultural Academy) in 1934, the Institute of Agricultural Microbiology, among 14 others, formed the backbone of the academy.

Institute today

Today, the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Microbiology forms the basis of the national scientific school of agricultural microbiologists, the founders of which were world–famous scientists academicians S.P. Kostychev, E.N. Mishustin, B.A. Isachenko, G.A. Nadson, I.I. Samoilov, O.A. Berestetsky, G.S. Muromtsev, prominent research scientists V.P. Israelsky, G.L. Seliber, M.P. Korsakova, K.A. Rudakov, L.A. Gardeur, M.I. Prokhorov, E.F. Berezova, Y.P. Khudyakov, N.M. Lazarev, L.M. Dorosinsky, Yu.M. Wozniakovskaya, who in many ways defined the face of the entire microbiology of our country. Today, employees who have left the institute work in many well-known laboratories in our country and abroad (USA, Great Britain, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico, France, etc.). During the difficult time of perestroika, the institute managed to retain its core staff and, today, about 90 researchers work within its walls, including 1 academician of the Russian Agricultural Academy, 9 doctors and 66 candidates of sciences.

Postgraduate studies and the dissertation Defense Council provide training for young qualified personnel. Often, future employees of the institute begin their activities as students and interns, completing term papers, theses, and master's theses. The staff of the Institute have developed and are giving original lecture courses at St. Petersburg State University on the basics of the interaction of microorganisms and plants, which are attended by both first-year students and masters. In addition to St. Petersburg State University, personnel for the institute come from a number of other universities in our city, such as St. Petersburg State University, Technological and Pedagogical State Universities, etc.

As at the beginning of its existence, the scientific activity of the institute is devoted to both fundamental issues of modern microbiology and practical developments that find their application in modern agricultural production. The structure of the Institute is constantly being improved and its changes reflect the dynamics of orders for research and development work. Currently, the Institute's largest customer is the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, which approves an order for an Industry-specific research program that forms the basis of the Institute's work, and in which almost all its departments participate. To a large extent, competitive projects that the institute manages to win contribute to the fulfillment of the tasks of the ONTP, they are logically linked to the tasks of the industry program and, thus, there is a concentration of forces and funds on the main, basic areas of research.. The permanent customer of the works is the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, with which the Institute has been actively cooperating for more than 20 years. The Ministry provides support for the most important fundamental research, international cooperation, practical projects, and also contributes to strengthening the material base. The Institute has been actively involved in the work of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research since its inception. In all the years of the RFBR's work, there has not been a single one when the institute's staff would not have won 2-3 initiative projects. Other domestic scientific foundations, such as the Federal Target Program "Integration", "Biodiversity", "The latest trends in Bioengineering" also play a significant role in shaping the institute's budget.

The Institute has traditionally been a methodological and coordinating center for agricultural microbiology in the country and coordinates the research work of more than 50 institutions of various ministries and departments, including institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, RAS, and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.

At the Institute, constant attention is paid to the most diverse issues of international cooperation, which is currently the most important factor of survival. The presence of an extensive system of connections, common research, prestigious publications with foreign colleagues allows you to successfully compete for funds from international sources: INTAS, Copernicus, NWO, CRDF, etc. At the moment, the institute cooperates with specialized laboratories in such countries as the Netherlands (B. Lugtenberg, T. Bisselling, G. Speink), the USA (A. Hirsch, K. Vance, M. Kahn), Germany (A. Puller, H. Bothe, K. Dietz, U. Priefer, V. Renz, E. Hammel), France (A. Kondoroshi, J. Cullimore, V. Gianinazi-Pearson, T. Huget), Italy (S. Karedda, F. Rusticelli, M. Bazicalupo, F. Sangiorgi), South Korea (U. Kang), Poland (A. Legotsky, K. Tarnau), Great Britain (N. Bruin, N. Ellis, P. Young) Australia (P. Greshoff), Finland (K. Lindstrom, P. Leonen), Sweden (A. Martensson, P. Lindblad, J. Enqvist), Spain (N. Thoreau, H. Sanhuan), Greece (M. Tipas), Japan (Sh. Akao), South Africa (P. Stein).

Over the years of capitalization of our country's economy, the Institute has developed entrepreneurial activities for the production and marketing of drugs developed in laboratories. Firms (Bisolbi-Inter and Biotrof) have emerged and are successfully developing, whose activities are increasingly beneficial to the institute, and cooperation with FART is developing. In many ways, the successful activity of the Institute was facilitated by the work of the Experimental Production Enterprise of the Ecos Institute, which develops technologies for the production and use of microbiological preparations. The company is entirely self-financing, has significant reserves of capacity and is able to quickly increase the production of drugs, for a number of which it is the only manufacturer.

Thus, due to various sources of financing, the institute manages to find up to 60% of financing in addition to the basic allocation limits only from domestic sources.

The foundation of the Institute's existence is a unique scientific school of agricultural microbiologists, which has been formed over 110 years of the existence of this field in Russia. The scientists of the Institute ensure a high level of fundamental research and their rapid implementation in practical terms. In the difficult conditions of the decline in the prestige of science, a viable team has been selected at the institute, capable of actively fighting for the preservation of its research areas, which has repeatedly proved that deep in formulation, modern in methods, urgent problems of a fundamental and applied nature will always find support, regardless of the political conjuncture. The relatively good material base of the institute, located in 10 main laboratories, also includes an electron microscopy group, a local computer network, independent access to the Internet, which allows you to work at a modern level. Fundamentally new opportunities are opening up in connection with the participation of the institute in the system of international division of labor, when the efforts of researchers from many laboratories and countries are combined in one project. Complex projects are often based on biological models created at the institute, which significantly raises the prestige of the institute. It is no coincidence that the 10th Congress on Biological Nitrogen Fixation was held on the basis of VNIISKHMB in 1995, and in 2003 the Congress on the Molecular Interaction of Microorganisms and Plants, which will be held in St. Petersburg. In addition to such major forums, the Institute regularly holds several workshops and conferences every year, including international ones, thereby ensuring constant coordination of research activities in its research areas.

The Institute's R&D plan currently focuses on studying the role of microorganisms in the agricultural landscape with the identification of the most significant types of microflora, the study of their functions, selection and introduction into the environment in order to regulate soil and microbiological processes.

Notable progress has been made in the field of the study and practical use of rhizosphere microorganisms, including nodule bacteria.

The Research Institute of Agricultural Microbiology has collected the largest collection of nodule bacteria strains for almost all known legumes, and the system of their use for inoculation of crops in our country is being actively improved. A new generation of fertilizing biologics based on associative nitrogen-fixing rhizobacteria based on bacteria of the genera Azospirillum, Agrobacterium, Arthrobacter, Pseudomonas, Bacillus has been created, which, at the moment, is becoming increasingly widespread under the commercial name "Extrasol". Previously, these microorganisms were selected based on the ability to fix nitrogen on the roots of non-leguminous plants, but later it was found that they possess a whole complex of beneficial properties for plants. The list of useful associative microorganisms, of course, is far from exhausted and therefore their number is constantly being updated.

Recently, the problem of the relationship between microorganisms and plants has become increasingly relevant. Despite the great competition in this field, the scientists of the Institute have made a worthy contribution to understanding the molecular genetic processes occurring in the rhizosphere, studying the genes of bacteria and plants that control symbiotic traits. One of the major generalizations in this area was the idea of a single genetic system of a symbiont microorganism and a host plant, which develops in the process of symbiotic interaction, while many genes of both partners were first identified and described by the staff of the Institute.

Soil monitoring and the ecology of soil microorganisms have traditionally occupied an extensive place in the Institute's work. At the moment, they have been enriched by the use of mathematical modeling methods, developments in the detoxification of xenobiotics, and the creation of technologies that ensure maximum productivity of soil microflora in agrophytocenosis.