Monoclonal cultures of the aerophytic cave diatom Luticola dismutica were studied and its frustule morphology, cytology and reproduction recorded. Luticola dismutica is a laterally asymmetrical, monoplastidic pennate diatom with imposed chloroplast division and nuclear behaviour of type 1.A sensu Mann & Stickle. Clones of L. dismutica decreased in cell size in culture until they have reached the sexual size range. Homothallic sexual reproduction and auxosporulation (type IB1a auxosporulation sensu Geitler) were induced in four sexualized clones. Gametangia paired via the girdle, two isogametes were formed per gametangium and hence two zygotes were produced per pair of gametangia. No surviving superfluous nuclei were observed in the gamete and zygote stages and no unfused haploid nuclei were seen in the auxospore stage; zygotes and expanded auxospores had only one nucleus. Auxospores expanded perpendicular to the apical axis of gametangia. Expanded auxospores and initial cells had a swollen central part, the linear-lanceolate outline shape of the vegetative valves was restored during the first divisions of the post-initial cells. Initial cells left the perizonium by a route unique to pennate diatoms, through a transverse rupture of the perizonium. The key cytological and reproductive characteristics reviewed in this paper indicate, that Luticola is more closely related to Placoneis and Dickieia, than to Navicula sensu stricto.
Pohlavní rozmnožování je jednou z největších evolučních záhad. Mezi eukaryotickými organismy je široce rozšířené navzdory zásadním nevýhodám. V prvním díle článku se autor zaměřuje na úvod do tohoto paradoxu a prezentuje dříve navržená vysvětlení z okruhu genetických a ekologických teorií pohlavního rozmnožování. Připravuje si tak půdu pro obecnější vysvětlení vyplývající z teorie zamrzlé plasticity v druhém díle seriálu., Sexual reproduction is one of the major evolutionary enigmas. It is widely distributed among eukaryotic organisms despite its essential disadvantages. In the first part of his article the author focuses on the introduction to this paradox and a presentation of the earlier explanations postulated by the genetic and ecological theories of sexual reproduction. He thus sets the stage for a more general explanation arising from the frozen plasticity theory in the second part., and Jan Toman.
Pohlavní rozmnožování je jednou z největších evolučních záhad. Mezi eukaryotickými organismy je široce rozšířené navzdory zásadním nevýhodám. V druhém díle článku se autor zaměřuje na vysvětlení tohoto paradoxu ze strany teorie zamrzlé plasticity, které shrnuje řadu výhod pohlavních druhů postulovaných dřívějšími teoriemi a vysvětluje je prostřednictvím evolučního zamrzání. To je vlastní pohlavním druhům a spočívá v dlouhodobém udržování vysokého genetického polymorfismu umožňujícího rychlé a vratné reakce na selekční tlaky prostředí na úkor schopnosti se nevratně přizpůsobit změněným podmínkám., Sexual reproduction is one of the major evolutionary enigmas. It is widely distributed among eukaryotic organisms despite its essential disadvantages. In the second part of his article, the author focuses on the explanation of this paradox according to the “frozen plasticity theory”, which connects several advantages of sexual organisms postulated by earlier theories and explicates them by evolutionary freezing. This phenomenon applies to sexual species and is based on long-term maintenance of high genetic polymorphism, which facilitate fast and reversible reactions to selective pressures of the environment at the expense of the ability to irreversibly adapt to changed conditions., and Jan Toman.
A long-standing problem with the taxonomic status and synonymy of the names Taraxacum nigricans (Kit.) Reichenb. and T. alpestre (Tausch) DC. is resolved. These two names, the oldest ones referable to high mountain dandelions in Central Europe, are typified, and a detailed comparison of these species’ morphology, genotype make-up, karyotypes and distribution is provided, together with a discussion of other cases of similar and probably closely related agamospermous taxa of Taraxacum and Hieracium. Taraxacum nigricans (2n = 32) and T. alpestre (2n = 32) are endemic to the Nízke Tatry Mts, Slovakia, and the Krkonoše/Karkonosze Mts, Czech Republic/ Poland, respectively. These are shown to differ in a series of minor but constant morphological, allozyme and karyotype features, and their treatment as separate agamospermous species is supported. A detailed analysis of cultivated and wild material from the Carpathians revealed the existence of a sexual taxon very close to the above two species and endemic to the region of the Bucegi Mts, Romania. It is described as a new species, T. carpaticum Štěpánek et Kirschner. Two new agamospermous species, apparently allied to T. nigricans, are described: T. rupicaprae Štěpánek et Kirschner, a species characterized by orange-ochraceous achenes and confined to the High Tatra Mts, and T. elegantissimum Štěpánek et Kirschner (2n = 24), which has substantially broader outer bracts and is known from the Rodna, Retezat and Fagaras Mts, Romania. Another three species are described that are morphological similar to T. carpaticum: T. pastorum (the Fagaras Mts, Romania), T. iucundum (the Retezat Mts, Romania) and T. pseudoalpestre (the Fagaras Mts, Romania).