[Department of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria: the past and the present].

Basic trends of the Department since the time of its foundation and till the present have been analyzed. The main attention was given the study of bacteria-agents ofplant diseases, their biological properties and ecological role, relationships with epiphytic and endophytic microflora, detection of their new ecological niches, with the use of traditional and modern molecular-genetic methods of research. Possible spheres of application of biopolymers of phytopathogenic bacteria have been considered.