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Thematic Unit "Development of Nature" in the Context of Biology Curriculum and Requierements of the Framework Education Programme for Grammer Schools
Šlechtová, Anna ; Rajsiglová, Jiřina (advisor) ; Markoš, Anton (referee)
The submitted work constitutes an elaboration of a thematic unit "Development of nature" designed for grammar schools in both expert and methodical aspect. Resulting outputs are a web presentation, two short educational films and two elaborated tutorial programmes based on E-U-R model of teaching. For better understanding and orientation in the curriculum, the look into the past is divided into four zooms: 1) in the scale of milliards, it includes the period from the origin of the Earth until the present; 2) in the scale of millions, it brings closer the Fanerozoicum; 3) in the scale of hundreds of thousands years, it covers the Qarternary era; 4) in the scale of thousands, it corresponds to the Holocene. Elaboration of this thematic unit is tied together with the ongoing school reform. It takes into account the incorporation of Geology educational field into the Framework Education Programme for Grammar Schools and works with key competencies.
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Signalization in the ontogeny of bacterial colonies
Čepl, Jaroslav ; Markoš, Anton (advisor) ; Kuthan, Martin (referee)
Bacterial bodies (colonies) can develop complex patterns of color and structure. These patterns may arise as a result of both colony-autonomous processes (self-patterning) and environmental influences, including those generated by neighbor bodies. We have studied the interplay of intra-colony signaling (self-patterning) and inter-colony influences in related clones of Serratia rubidaea on rich media. We show that the mutual influencing of colonies, present in a common morphospace, is communicated by at least two putative signals. A model accounting for some aspects of colony morphogenesis and inter-colony interactions is proposed. Key words bacteria; Serratia sp.; airborne signals; colony morphogenesis
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Nietzsche, Conscience, Evolution
Šturmová, Magdalena ; Hladký, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Markoš, Anton (referee)
The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche was significantly influenced by the theory of evolution, though his interest was almost solely in relation to the human psyche. However, while many topics of his philosophy are similar to current topics of discussion in science, reflection on these thoughts is rare. The aim of this dissertation is to present Nietzsche's pivotal thoughts about the nature, function and evolution of human consciousness, with subsequent reflection on these thoughts and on their embedding in the broader context of current scientific discussion. From the standpoint of Nietzsche's philosophy, the main themes of this work are the conception of consciousness as "social instinct"; the critique of conception of consciousness as human essence and related topics; and, from the standpoint of current science, the question of the mechanism of the evolution of the human consciousness. The conclusion deals with cognitive archaeology and its attempt to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the human mind. The appendix is about Nietzsche's relation to Darwinism.
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Ecological aspects of sexual reproduction
Toman, Jan ; Flegr, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Markoš, Anton (referee)
Sexual reproduction is one of the most interesting biological phenomena. No theory has ever entirely explained its wide occurrence among Eukaryotic clades despite its clear disadvantages (e.g. twofold price of sex). Theories can be divided into three groups according to the approach to solve this problem - molecular, genetic and ecological (environmental). Environmental theories are slightly preferred in the last decades and the opinion that the key to the sex enigma lies among them is widely accepted. Most of the environmental theories do not counter each other and there is possibility either to integrate them in several ways or presume that several of these theories might act simultaneously. According to theories, abiotically stable environments without biotic interactions (homogenous) should be suitable for and select for asexual species, whereas environments abiotically variable and rich in biotic interactions (heterogenous) should be suitable for and select for sexual species. The anagenetic phenomenon of punctuated equilibria and some of its explanations, e.g. P. R. Sheldon's Plus ça change hypothesis or J. Flegr's Frozen plasticity theory, also supports this division. There is a vast amount of empirical data supporting this division in ecological studies. Clearly homogenous environments...
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Role of genetic variance in speciation
Payne, Pavel ; Markoš, Anton (advisor) ; Rueffler, Claus (referee)
Sympatric speciation has received much attention both empirically and theoretically. However, the contribution of sympatric speciation to biodiversity remains unclear. One piece missing from the speciation puzzle is the plausibility of sympatric ecological divergence of species through adaptation in polygenic traits. I consider an environment consisting of two niches, where one value of the trait is advantageous in only one niche, and vice versa. The selection regime is described by a trade-off in viabilities between the niches. These polygenic traits can, and often do, involve epistatic interactions among and between loci, so that the contribution of the alleles to viability deviates from additivity. Epistasis then also affects the curvature of the trade-offs: predominant less-than-additive epistasis turns the curve towards concavity and predominant more-than-additive towards convexity. The curvature of the trade-off plays a crucial role in the evolution of populations. With a convex trade- off, extreme values of the trait are favored and the population tends to diverge, but relatively stringent symmetry in strength of selection within the niches and the niche proportions is necessary to maintain polymorphism. In this study I use two and three- locus haploid versions of Levene's model to...
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Evolution of light detection in chordates
Pergner, Jiří ; Kozmik, Zbyněk (advisor) ; Markoš, Anton (referee) ; Musilová, Zuzana (referee)
Light detection is one of the crucial abilities of all animals. The light cues are important e.g. for maintaining of circadian rhythms, regulation of spawning cycles, changes of pigmentation and arguably most importantly for vision. Most animals detect light by opsins, members of the G protein coupled receptors superfamily. Amphioxus belongs to earliest branching chordate clade, cephalochordates. Thanks to their phylogenetic position, physiology and morphology, cephalochordates became the most relevant model organism for understanding the evolutionary origins of vertebrate specific traits. Amphioxus evince various reactions to light throughout its development. In the presented thesis light detecting systems of amphioxus were studied thoroughly. More specifically characterization of the opsin gene repertoire of two amphioxus species Branchiostoma floridae and Branchiostoma lanceolatum and their comparison with opsins from other animals is presented. In addition, remarkable similarity on the gene expression level between one of amphioxus visual organs, so called frontal eye, and neurons and retinal pigmented epithelium in vertebrate retina was shown. These data confirm the long time ago proposed homology between amphioxus frontal eye and vertebrate lateral eyes. Taken together all the presented data...
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Thematic Unit "Development of Nature" in the Context of Biology Curriculum and Requierements of the Framework Education Programme for Grammar Schools
Šlechtová, Anna ; Rajsiglová, Jiřina (advisor) ; Markoš, Anton (referee)
The submitted work constitutes an elaboration of a thematic unit "Development of nature" designed for grammar schools in both expert and methodical aspect. Resulting outputs are a web presentation, two short educational films and two elaborated tutorial programmes based on E - U - R model of teaching in the theoretical framework of constructivism. For better understanding and orientation in the curriculum, the look into the past is divided into four zooms: 1) in the scale of milliards, it includes the period from the origin of the Earth until the present; 2) in the scale of millions, it brings closer the Fanerozoicum; 3) in the scale of hundreds of thousands years, it covers the Qarternary era; 4) in the scale of thousands, it corresponds to the Holocene. Elaboration of this thematic unit is tied together with the ongoing school reform. It takes into account the incorporation of Geology educational field into the Framework Education Programme for Grammar Schools and works with key competencies.
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