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GM crops for new food, pharmacological and technical use: inovation of secondary school study
Koblihová, Kateřina ; Opatrný, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Drda Morávková, Alena (referee)
The demand for plant and other production is increasing with the growth of human population when the territory where plants can be grown is continually decreasing. The present agricultural production of food, industrial materials and drugs of plant origin is not enough for people, as for the effort to achieve higher environmental comfort, especially in developed countries. We are trying to find a simpler, cleaner and cheaper ways of crop production. The genetic modification is one of the modern ways how to achieve this goal. Students get a lot of information about this topic from various sources, but mainly just from the internet and television. It is recommended that students should be able to compare information received from the media with school knowledge as for avoiding opinion pressure and manipulations.
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Non-traditional roles of formins besides actin nucleation
Metlička, Jáchym ; Cvrčková, Fatima (advisor) ; Opatrný, Zdeněk (referee)
Formin homology 2 (FH2) domaincontaining proteins (formins) have, since their discovery in 1990, been observed in all analyzed species of eukaryotic kingdoms. Our knowledge of structure and function of the defining FH2 domain has greatly increased over the last couple of years. Its function in nucleation, polymerization and processive capping of actin filaments designates formin protein family an important cytoskeletonremodelling factor. But FH2 domain is just one part of the puzzle additional optional conserved peptide structures surrounding it, as well as concrete variation of the FH2 domain itself, greatly influence the functional properties and cellular localization of the resultant formin protein. Formins have been implicated in variety of cellular processes, which often (but not always) involve the cytoskeleton e.g. Factin network management, crosstalk of Factin filaments and microtubules or plasma membrane. They also partake in processes integral to cell division, function in conserved signalling pathways and much more. This thesis explains the structure and function of FH2 and FH1 domains, outlines the main formin phylogenetic clades in multicellular eukaryotes and reviews various roles that formins fulfill or are thought to fulfill. Such goal, however, is very bold and (considering the...
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Organic farming and modern plant biology
Fantová, Adéla ; Opatrný, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Lhotáková, Zuzana (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to introduce the concept of organic farming from the point of view of contemporary science in the field of plant biology to secondary school students and their teachers. The first part deals with organic farming, its origins and ideological subtext, further on its advantages and disadvantages are summarized. The second part focuses on biotechnological agriculture which uses breeding methods of genetic engineering. The third part presents possibilities of coexistence and confrontation and comparison of these two approaches used in present and future agriculture. The last part deals with inclusion of this topic into present secondary school education and its significance. It includes analysis of textbooks and curricular documents.
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Molecular and cellular aspects of programmed cell death in response to genotoxics in plants
Smetana, Ondřej ; Opatrný, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Havel, Ladislav (referee) ; Reichheld, Jean-Philippe (referee)
In multicellular organisms, programmed cell death (PCD) is an essential mechanism during development, morphogenesis and during the interaction with the environment. The regulation of PCD is highly regulated and conserved throughout the evolution. Animal apoptosis is the best described PCD type which is characterized by the condensation of cytoplasm, specific DNA fragmentation and the formation of apoptotic bodies which are finally engulfed by neighboring cells. Due to the structural specificities of plant cells, plant PCD exhibits rather autophagic character. In mammals, DSBs-induced PCD is mainly governed by ATM kinase. This response also involves downstream ATM effectors like p53 and E2F factors. P53 stabilization leads to the cell cycle arrest in G1/S whereas E2F can promote apoptosis by activating PCD-related genes including caspases. PCD could be induced also by E2F ectopic expression. In spite of a conservation of PCD signaling among Eukaryotes, number of animal PCD regulators was not identified in plants (caspases, p53), thus in plants the PCD response induced by DSBs is still poorly understood. On the contrary, E2F transcriptional factor is conserved between animals and plants but its role during plant PCD was not evaluated till now. The main goal of my thesis was to characterize the PCD in...
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The role of AGC protein kinases in the regulation of auxin transport
Martincová, Marie ; Petrášek, Jan (advisor) ; Opatrný, Zdeněk (referee)
There are several members of the subfamily of plant AGC kinases (AGCVIII) suggested to play a role in the regulation of auxin transport, protein kinases PID, WAG1, WAG2 and D6. They all have been shown to perform regulatory phosphorylation of PIN auxin efflux carriers. It is the asymmetrical subcellular localization of PIN proteins that enables the auxin molecules to be transported through a tissue in a polar manner. Regulation of their expression, localization or activity can therefore affect the quantity and directionality of auxin transport. This thesis is focused on better understanding of the PID-mediated regulation of auxin transport. The auxin accumulation as well as the localization of PIN and PID proteins has been studied using stable and transient expression of Arabidopsis thaliana PID in tobacco cell line BY-2. As shown here, the activity of PID does not enhance the activity of PINs, but still it has a positive effect on auxin efflux by increasing the amount of PIN proteins on the plasma membrane. Results presented here suggest that PID-mediated phosphorylation of PIN proteins most likely promotes their exocytosis from endosomal compartments towards the plasma membrane. Using transient co-expression of PID kinase mutated in its ATP-binding site and PIN1-RFP it was shown that functional...
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Auxin Transport in Arabidopsis thaliana: From the whole plant to suspension cultured cells
Seifertová, Daniela ; Zažímalová, Eva (advisor) ; Opatrný, Zdeněk (referee) ; Hejátko, Jan (referee)
in English Plants with their sessile life-style are exposed to many stimuli from environment. They have developed mechanisms how to coordinate their growth and development, which allows them to survive sometimes in very difficult conditions. Plant hormones are one of the most important regulators of this signal transduction. Auxins, as the oldest known group of plant hormones, play important role in many physiological processes in plants. To allow perceiving the information in every single cell, auxin molecule is transported by cell-to-cell manner. Auxin molecules enter the cell by passive diffusion or by active uptake by auxin influx carriers. To reach the next cell, they are transported actively out of the cell by auxin efflux carriers. Athough active auxin transport has been studied for almost four decades, past two decades contributed to the identification and characterization of particular auxin carriers remarkably. This thesis contributes to the knowledge on the auxin efflux and influx carriers and their involvement in the processes occurring from a single cell level to the level of a whole plant. Firstly, it brings detailed description of auxin transport characteristics in Arabidopsis thaliana cell suspension cells (Ath cells). Secondly, it shows that the overproduction of PIN1 auxin efflux...
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Biofortified plants and plant molecular farming
Koblihová, Kateřina ; Opatrný, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Pavlová, Libuše (referee)
Genetically modified crops (GM crop) are plants which have changed their genotype by molecular-genetic techniques. Targeting interventions into plant genotype have higher efficiency in comparison to methods, which are used in classical breeding. Essential presumption of these interventions is profound knowledge of molecular biology, genetics and plant physiology. The success of genetic modifications is dependant upon increasing knowledge from many branches of biology. The first generation of GM crops was resistant to abiotic stress, pests, herbicides or diseases. The outcome of this is increase of yields and overall decrease of costs. These qualities bear profit especially for farmers but not for end-users. Many methods, which are used for transformation of the first generation of genetically modified crops, are used for next generations as well. Biofortification could be considered as the next step of genetic modification of crops. Plants, which are consuming, are improved by substances, which prosperous to the human body. They should partly substitute the variety of food and to help improve the nutrition, but they don't have curative effects. Molecular-genetic principles of their creation are very similar to molecular farming. Nowadays the molecular farming presents the top of genetic...
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