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Variability of the domestic chicken breeds in selected immunological traits of hen and egg
Bílková, Barbora ; Vinkler, Michal (advisor) ; Plachý, Jiří (referee) ; Trefil, Pavel (referee)
The avian immune system is a complex system of defence mechanisms that protect bird hosts against threats from ubiquitous pathogens. According to the co-evolutionary models, variability in immune traits of hosts is the key component providing ability to adapt and enhance their defence mechanisms in presence of constant selective pathogen pressure. Domestic chicken (Gallus gallus f. domestica) is used as a model organism in avian biology and also is one of the most important food-producing animals, not only for their meat but also for the egg production. Unfortunately, in research usually only inbred chicken lines are used and modern poultry husbandry is tight with unilateral breeding towards highly productive breeds. Those approaches decrease intra-population polymorphism in chickens. However, especially in case of farm animals, searching and extending the pool of immune variability and enhancing pathogen resistance is crucial for sustaining healthy and biologically secure populations and their products. Morphologically highly distinct traditional chicken breeds, which have evolved for hundreds years under different selective pressures, may represent this desirable immunological variability. In my thesis I described variability in chosen immunological traits, haematological parameters and proteomic...
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Variability of the domestic chicken breeds in selected immunological traits of hen and egg
Bílková, Barbora ; Vinkler, Michal (advisor) ; Plachý, Jiří (referee) ; Trefil, Pavel (referee)
The avian immune system is a complex system of defence mechanisms that protect bird hosts against threats from ubiquitous pathogens. According to the co-evolutionary models, variability in immune traits of hosts is the key component providing ability to adapt and enhance their defence mechanisms in presence of constant selective pathogen pressure. Domestic chicken (Gallus gallus f. domestica) is used as a model organism in avian biology and also is one of the most important food-producing animals, not only for their meat but also for the egg production. Unfortunately, in research usually only inbred chicken lines are used and modern poultry husbandry is tight with unilateral breeding towards highly productive breeds. Those approaches decrease intra-population polymorphism in chickens. However, especially in case of farm animals, searching and extending the pool of immune variability and enhancing pathogen resistance is crucial for sustaining healthy and biologically secure populations and their products. Morphologically highly distinct traditional chicken breeds, which have evolved for hundreds years under different selective pressures, may represent this desirable immunological variability. In my thesis I described variability in chosen immunological traits, haematological parameters and proteomic...
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Usage of molecular genetics in investigation of origin of domesticated animals
Buchtová, Lucie ; Vinkler, Michal (advisor) ; Hájková, Petra (referee)
Animal domestication has been one of the most significant agricultural activities of modern humans. It allowed not only more efficient utilization of some animals, but also their breeding which led to improvements in their properties and through crossbreeding to gain of novel forms utilizable in agriculture. This artificial selection and in several cases probably also interspecific hybridization allowed the emergence of the contemporary diversity of breeds of the domestic animals. The origin of individual breeds has been, however, long forgotten and comparative morphology cannot provide us much guidance for understanding of the relatedness of individual breeds. The information on relatedness of breeds is, nonetheless, highly needed, for instance, for evaluation of selection and prediction of the functional significance of the existing genetic variability. Hence, methods of molecular genetics represent the only way how to estimate phylogeny of the domestic breeds. The aim of this work is to shortly review molecular methods which have been used in animal domestication research and outline the results which have been obtained by their application. Based on incongruences and agreements in the results of the published studies the applicability of these methods is critically evaluated and credibility of...
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Application of molecular and cellular biology methods in research of protozoa Eimeria
Vrba, Vladimír ; Škvor, Jiří (advisor) ; Čepička, Ivan (referee) ; Hampl, Vladimír (referee)
Eimeria is an apicomplexan parasite causing disease coccidiosis that is most prominent in poultry farming industry. This thesis is aimed to develop new molecular tools and resolve issues that would be a valuable contribution in the field from both research and industry perspective. Because immunity to Eimeria is strictly species- specific, it is important to know and recognize correctly all species that parasitize the host. Traditional diagnostic approaches rely on classical methods such as oocyst morphology determination under the microscope, measurement of prepatent period or in-vivo assessment of lesions caused by this parasite. However, diagnostics of individual species using these methods is very time-consuming and it is often unreliable, especially when mixture of multiple species whose parameters overlap is analyzed. Methods utilizing conventional PCR to distinguish species already exist, however, they lack advantages offered by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). The first aim of this thesis was to develop qPCR assays for detection and quantification of seven Eimeria species which infect chicken utilizing single-copy non-polymorphic targets in order to ensure maximal specifity and coverage of all strains of each species. Usefulness of this method was demonstrated by analysis of field...
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Characterization of Z chromosome gene content in birds
Mořkovský, Libor ; Reifová, Radka (advisor) ; Král, Jiří (referee)
Theory predicts that sexually antagonistic mutations will be over- or under-represented on the X and Z chromosomes, depending on the average dominance coefficient of the mutations. However, as little is known about the dominance coefficients for new mutations, the effect of sexually antagonistic selection is difficult to predict. To elucidate the role of sexually antagonistic selection in the evolution of Z chromosome gene content in chicken, we analyzed publicly available microarray data from several somatic tissues as well as somatic and germ cells of the ovary. We found that the Z chromosome is enriched for genes showing preferential expression in ovarian somatic cells, but not for genes with preferential expression in primary oocytes or non-sex-specific somatic tissues. Our results suggest that sexual antagonism leads to higher abundance of female-benefit alleles on the Z chromosome. No bias towards Z-linkage of oocyte-enriched genes can be explained by lower intensity of sexually antagonistic selection in ovarian germ cells compared to ovarian somatic cells. An alternative explanation would be that meiotic Z chromosome inactivation hinders accumulation of oocyte-expressed genes on the Z chromosome. Our results are consistent with findings in mammals and indicate that recessive rather than dominant...
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