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Evolution of karyotypes and sex determination in the turtle family Geoemydidae
Clemente, Lorenzo ; Rovatsos, Michail (advisor) ; Montiel Jimenez, Eugenia Elisabet (referee) ; Castiglia, Riccardo (referee)
(IN ENGLISH) The majority of studied turtles show temperature-dependent sex determination, but genotypic sex determination (i.e. presence of sex chromosomes) was identified sporadically. This thesis aims to investigate and expand our knowledge on the evolution of the karyotype and the sex determination in turtles, particularly focusing on the family Geoemydidae, a group of turtles with previously documented variability in sex determination systems. The presence of sex chromosomes was explored by a combination of conventional and molecular cytogenetic techniques for the analysis of karyotypes, distribution of constitutive heterochromatin (C-banding) and repetitive elements and comparative genome hybridization (FISH, CGH). In total, 49 species of turtles from nine different families were cytogenetically examined in this study. In the family Geoemydidae, a remarkable similarity in karyotypes was identified, consisting of 2n=52 chromosomes (which is suggested to be the ancestral diploid number for all turtles) and a similar topology of rDNA loci and telomeric repeats. Sharma et al. (1975) previously reported ZZ/ZW sex chromosomes in Pangshura smithii. However, in the analysis presented in this thesis, it is suggested a possible misidentification of these sex chromosomes due to erroneous pairing of...
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Mechanisms of asexual reproduction in reptiles
Augstenová, Barbora ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (advisor) ; Abramjan, Andran (referee)
In the case of reptiles, there has been described an occurrence of an asexual reproduction, especially in the case of a group Squamata; the asexual reproduction of birds (Aves) has been observed, too. Multiple times the asexuality of reptiles has been originated. Occurrences of obligate and facultative asexual species have been described. Most obligate asexual species have theirs origin in one or more hybridization events between closely related species. However, within the family Xantusiidae two exceptions where asexuality apparently originated without hybridization were discovered. Facultative parthenogenesis was originally expected only among reptiles kept in captivity, where the females were separated from males for a long time. However, this assumption was later disproved. The majority of the specimens formed by facultative parthenogenesis has reduced viability, which can be caused by the imperfect mechanism of the formation of parthenogenetic offspring. The terminal fusion is considered to be the probable mechanism of creation of diploid oocytes in the case of facultative parthenogenesis reptiles. The cytological mechanism of the parthenogenetic offspring's genesis was described for the obligate parthenogenetic species just for genus Aspidoscelis. During oogenesis in this case is ploidy...
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Factors influencing flight-initiation distance in reptiles and the comparison with endotherm vertebrates
Fictumová, Tereza ; Frýdlová, Petra (advisor) ; Sedláček, Ondřej (referee)
The fleeing behaviour is one of the most common antipredatory strategy. It is intensively studied in many groups of animals. The flight-initiation distance (FID) is used for quantification of fleeing behaviour. The FID represents the distance between a prey and an approaching predator in which the prey starts fleeing. The FID is also used for quantifying of preys fear. The factors influencing FID in reptiles are: temperature, habitat, refuge availability, foraging strategies, predator behaviour etc. I discovered some factors which are different for mammals and birds. The most important difference is the ectothermy in reptiles vs. the endothermy in mammals and birds. Another difference is parental care, alarm calls and grouping. The factors as an influence of predator, refuge availability or type of habitat seems to have very similar or the same impact on FID for both groups.
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Noninvasive measurement of steroid homones and effect of hormonal manipulation on behaviour in the gecko Paroedura picta
Matušková, Lucie ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (advisor) ; Fraňková, Marcela (referee)
Hormones influence life of all animals. Not only they affect physiological changes in organisms, but also impact their behaviour. This work focuses at two main groups of steroid hormones: glucocorticoids and androgens. Glucocortiods are activated in response to stress. Their levels can be measured using non-invasive methods, which have a range of advantages. The main advantage is the feedback-free sample collection for enzyme immunoassay. As the measurement involves metabolites of the hormones rather than the hormones themselves, prior validation of the method is, however, necessary. This work reports on a study aiming to validate non-invasive measurement on the Madagascar Ground Gecko (Paroedura Picta). The validation was based on ACTH challenge test: Synacthen Depot was injected, which should lead to increased blood level of glucocorticoids. The validation, however, was not successful. The measurement did not discover significant increase in the levels of the metabolites of glucocorticoids. In addition, the work focuses on behavioural effects of testosterone, the primary androgen. Hormonal manipulations have been carried out on several male and female specimens. The results have discovered differences in sexual behaviour between control groups. On the other hand, the hormonal manipulations had no...
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Spatial orientation in reptiles focused on methods of testing of allothetic navigation
Voňavková, Monika ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee)
Recently are known several different navigational systems in reptiles, mainly large scale navigational abilities based on sun and magnetic compass. The turtles are frequently used species in studies of spatial cognition, however, informations about spatial cognitive abilities in snakes and lizards (order Squamata) are only a few. Current knowledge concerning mechanism of small scale navigation based on allothetic orientation in snakes and lizards is only poorly understood. Aim of this thesis is review the literature about the mechanisms of reptile spatial orientation focused on allothetic navigation (using of external landmarks). As extension of this thesis is review of the principles of testing allothetic orientation in other groups (e. g. mammals) that were frequently used as a subject for testing allothetic orientation). The design of tests of allothetic orientation in model species of lizards (Eublepharis macularius) is one of the results of this thesis. Keywords: reptiles, spatial orientation, allothetic navigation
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Metabolic costs of reproduction in vertebrates, particularly in reptiles
Kukačková, Dominika ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (advisor) ; Hořák, David (referee)
Animal reproduction involves energy expenditures for gamete formation, support of offspring development, and associated behavioural changes. Due to high variability in reproductive traits, reptiles are the ideal study group for this field. Investment in reproductive organs and gametes represent costs of sex products production. The next phase of reproduction is gestation, when females support their developing offspring, which results in additional metabolic costs. Metabolism of pregnant female can be viewed as a sum of resting metabolism, which is the same as in non-pregnant animal, of increased metabolism to support pregnancy, and of embryonic metabolism. Separation of each component is crucial for assessing energy costs of reproduction and for comparison of different reproductive strategies. Certain behavioural changes during reproduction can influence total energy balance as well. These changes include increased locomotion costs or shifts in the thermoregulatory behaviour. Estimation of the real costs of reproduction is a complex matter since a reproduction is a very dynamic process and there are many issues that influence the overall energy consumption of reproducing individuals.
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Evolution of sex chromosomes and karyotypes in the lizard clade Laterata
Buchbauerová, Lucie ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (advisor) ; Šťáhlavský, František (referee)
The aim of this study was to summarize all what is known about the karyotype and about sex chromosomes in the lizard clade Laterata and to analyze this two gained datasets by means of a phylogeny. Karyotype represents a whole number of chromosomes in a cell and it is an important source of informations on how the genetic information in nucleus is organized and how it works along with the evolution. The Laterata clade consists of four big groups of squamate reptiles: Teiidae, Gymnophthalmidae, Amphisbaenia and Lacertidae. All the groups have a genotypic sex determination system (GSD) and some species within these clades posses sex chromosomes. If they are present, in Teiidae and Gymnophthalmidae it is the XY sex chromosome system which determines the sex of a specimen. On the other hand, in Amphisbaenia and Lacertidae it is the ZW system of sex determination. Sometimes the X1X1X2X2:X1X2Y or Z1Z1Z2Z2:Z1Z2W sex chromosome system occurs in Teiidae / Gymnophthalmidae or in Lacertidae, respectively. The phylogenetical analysis was performed in Mesquite programme and the output from the analysis is a phylogenetical tree with two characters (number of chromosomes and the sex determination system) and the maximum parsimony counted for each of them. Then the interpretation was on the order and it is the main...
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Relationship between egg size and incubation time in geckos (Squamata: Gekkota)
Mrskočová, Jana ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (advisor) ; Frynta, Daniel (referee)
Previous studies of the relationship between egg size and the embryonic development time showed a positive correlation between the two variables at interspecies level, thus offering the idea that the evolution of the latter could be a limiting factor for enlarging the size of eggs during evolution. Some research into interspecies and intraspecific level of reptiles doesn't confirm this correlation. At the same time, the relationship between the development time and egg size is influenced by many factors, such as shifts in ontogenetic stages of the embryo at the time of ablation of eggs, due to temperature and humidity, the presence of embryonic diapause during embryogenesis or synchronization of hatching time, of which the authors of previous studies took no account or filtered out inaccurately. I think that most of these factors can be well controlled in intraspecific studies, but, variation in egg size within species also tends to be small, which prevents a reliable test for correlation. The solution can be to compare closely related species with high variability in the size of the eggs, in our case the geckos of the genus Paroedura and family Eublepharidae. I eliminated temperature effects by comparing the time of incubation in two equal constant temperatures. The results show that, in this...
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