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The evolution of vision in ray-finned fishes
Truhlářová, Veronika ; Musilová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Kalous, Lukáš (referee)
Vision plays a key role in life of many vertebrates, and the performance of visual system is often adapted to specific environments inhabited by individual species. Fish colonized a wide range of habitats and adjusted their visual abilities to maximize their success rates in hunting, reproduction and predator avoidance. This thesis is focused on molecular mechanism of visual system, namely on genes for photoreceptor proteins, opsins, of two major groups of teleost fishes: African riverine cichlids (family Cichlidae, order Cichliformes, part of larger taxa Percomorpha), and European freshwater cyprinids (family Cyprinidae, order Cypriniformes, part of larger taxa Ostariophysi). Two types of photoreceptor cells are present on retina: the cones and the rods. Actinopterygian fishes in general have four cone opsin types (SWS1, SWS2, RH2 and LWS) used for colour (photopic) vision, and one rod opsin type (rhodopsins) for vision in deteriorated light conditions (scotopic vision). In the present thesis, I focus on 1) DNA sequence and amino acid substitutions of the opsin genes, and on 2) gene expression levels of opsins sensitive to various wavelengths of light spectrum. The results of my work show that both cichlids (family Cichlidae) and cyprinids (family Cyprinidae) have a complete set of opsin genes in...
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Phylogenic and developmental plasticity of structure of endo and exodermis in roots of higher plants
Szutkowská, Veronika ; Soukup, Aleš (advisor) ; Srba, Miroslav (referee)
Root endodermis and exodermis form apoplastic barriers for the movement of water and solutes into and out of the plant root system. Both layers have modified cell walls with Casparian strips. They often develope suberin lamela as a secondary development stage and thickened cellulose, sometimes lignified, wall as a tertiary development stage. Endodermis, as the innermost layer of cortex, is generally present in all vascular plant roots except Lycopodium. It is very phylogenetically and developmentally stable and in most cases single-layered. Exodermis can be often multi-layered or dimorphic and is formed on the periphery of the root. This layer can be found in a large number of angiosperms but according to the data gathered so far it seems that most of the seedless plants and gymnosperms lack it. Its presence correlates with the environmental conditions in which plants grow and its high structural and developmental plasticity helps roots to resist stress conditions such as drought, salinity, anoxic conditions and the presence of toxic substances. This paper aims to summarize the current knowledge of interspecies variability and developmental plasticity of endodermis and exodermis in roots of vascular plants.
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