Akademicheskaya, Minsk, 220072 Republic of Belarus, e-mail V.Lemesh@igc.bas-net.by, mw.bogdanova@gmail.com, E.Guzenko@igc.bas-net.by Received November 27, 2015 A b s t r a c t Breeding and genetic researches of flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) started more than 100 years ago, but their relevance does not decrease. <...> More than 200 cultivars of this culture are offered in the international seed market for oil and fiber production with yearly amount of the harvested area about one million hectares and 0.3 million hectares, respectively. <...> Now duration of breeding work for creating a new variety is up to 10-15 years. <...> Basic part of breeding work is ecological trials and intensive using in the crossing the best new cultivars, old popular varieties («kriazhee»), local samples and breeding forms (S.N. Kutuzova et al., 2010; A. Diedrechsen et al., 2013). <...> Physical (γ-radiation) and chemical (Nnitrosomethylurea, ethyleneimine, dimethyl sulfate) mutagens considerably raise an output of mutant forms which possess economically valuable traits (M.I. Loginov et al., 2005; I.V. Uschapovsky, 2013). <...> The article examines the examples of the use of cell and tissue culture techniques that extend somaclonal variation and allow to produce flax lines with desirable properties, including disease resistance (fusariosis, anthracnose) (V.A. Lyakh et al., 2008; N.V. Proletova et al., 2010). <...> The review describes DNA marking technology which allows us to group genetic material of flax according to its genetic proximity and to optimize matching the genotypes to crossbreeding in view of saving the maximum genetic diversity (Y.B. Fu et al., 2003; V.A. Lemesh et al., 2006). <...> SSR analysis is examined as the perspective direction for genetic identification of flax lines and cultivars (V.A. Lemesh et al., 2013), identifications of inter- and intraspecific genetic linkages (J. Vromans, 2006), possible linkages between molecular markers and economically important traits (V.A. Lemesh et al., 2012) and establishments of linkages groups between marker pairs (S. Cloutier, 2012). <...> The directions of possible integration of traditional breeding methods and methods of molecular biology <...>