The study of a combinative ability of winter wheat (review) The paper presents a survey of the researches carried out to study the combinational ability of wheat by both domestic and foreign scientists. K.M. Gabdullin revealed that by estimating the combinational ability, it is possible to determine the value of the initial material, which differs in frost resistance, ecological and geographical origin, in the most important economic characteristics and biological properties. S. Boroevich noted that, the studying the combining ability of parental forms involved in hybridization plays a special pole in increasing the effectiveness of wheat selection, since proper selection of the source material gives an opportunity to improve the desirable characteristics and properties in the newly developed varieties. The scientists whose research results are presented in this article selected the sources of high combinational ability and recommended them as an initial material.