This thesis deals with a phylogeny of living Equidae based on an available evidence (morphology, behaviour, chromosomes, mitochondrial and nuclear genes) and using maximum parsiomony and Bayesian approaches; and ILD, PBS analyses which are able to recognise incongruences between specific character partitions. My results are relatively very robust and rational in comparison with published studies. My thesis consists of a review (literature, GenBank) and obtaining of many sequences by myself.

This thesis deals with a phylogeny of living Equidae based on an available evidence (morphology, behaviour, chromosomes, mitochondrial and nuclear genes) and using maximum parsiomony and Bayesian approaches; and ILD, PBS analyses which are able to recognise incongruences between specific character partitions. My results are relatively very robust and rational in comparison with published studies. My thesis consists of a review (literature, GenBank) and obtaining of many sequences by myself.

Retortamonads (Retortamonadida; genera Chilomastix and Retortamonas) are a small group of protists comprising intestinal commensals of both vertebrates and invertebrates and one free-living species of the genus Chilomastix. Molecular phylogenetic studies showed that retortamonads are closely related to diplomonads, Carpediemonas, Dysnectes, Hicanonectes, Kipferlia and two undescribed lineages of free-living Carpediemonas-like organisms, together forming the monophyletic excavate group Fornicata. For a long time Retortamonadida have been assumed to be a monophyletic group. However, first molecular phylogenetic study including sequence data from both Retortamonas and Chilomastix suggested that Retortamonadida are paraphyletic and that diplomonads branch within Retortamonadida. Retortamonads still remain poorly studied protist group and their phylogeny is unclear. We sequenced and analysed SSU rDNA of ten Retortamonas and four Chilomastix SSU rDNA sequences. In addition, we sequenced SSU rDNA of an undescribed enteromonad lineage. The phylogenetic tree of Fornicata was largely unresolved and the phylogenetic position of the genus Chilomastix remained unclear. On the other hand, the genus Retortamonas and diplomonads formed a robust clade. Retortamonas sequences split into three host-specific lineages. The...

Genus Frustulia was chosen for this work due to the continuity of the previous research of our phycological group. Using molecular techniques, it was found that a number of morphologically defined species of diatoms is cryptic species complex, which may have limited dispersal. The aim of this study was to: 1) evaluate the diversity of the genus Frustulia in northern Europe by molecular methods and classify found species in the phylogenetic context of related species; 2) find out if it possible to identify the isolated species in natural samples by using morphological characters. There have been analyzed 234 strains by molecular methods. Isolated ones were in four clades. 86 % of the strains belonged to a generic complex F. crassinervia-saxonica. Two strains were identified as species F. gaertnerae and F. septentrionalis. The last line was not described yet so it was labeled as F. sp. This line is closely related to the species F. maoriana, which is considered to be endemic in New Zealand. Phylogeny of the genus was created based on a dataset of four molecular markers. Published morphometric data were then compared with 264 cells photos taken by scanning electron microscope. There was done surveillance comparison of the results of the analysis of quantitative and qualitative characters with...

The topic of this work was the use of variable DNA regions for clarification of phylogenic relations of closely related South African species of Crassula L. genus. Based on preliminary dendrogram which was constructed according to chloroplast regions, 69 members of Crassula genus were used for analysis. Variable regions of chloroplast DNA (matK, rps16) as well as nuclear regions of DNA (ITS, ETS) of these members were analyzed. This work was focused on variable regions of nuclear DNA mainly to ETS region which was found as the most suita-ble for phylogenic study of this group of plants. These four regions of DNA were amplified and sequenced for all 69 analyzed members of Crassula genus. The multiple alignments of all DNA sequences were evaluated. The results confirm hypothesis that chosen noncoding nucle-ar DNA regions can be more suitable for phylogenetic study of these closely related species than chloroplast DNA regions because of their much higher variability. The ETS region shoved highest variability of all regions used in this work, so it appears as suitable for detailed phylogenetic analysis of the Crassula genus.

Genome size in plants varies greatly; in angiosperms this variability can make a 2400- fold difference. This is why the subject of many studies is the attempt to explain these differences in various contexts. One of these is the phylogenetic viewpoint, which studies the relationships between genome size and different taxonomic groups. Many studies have been published so far which explore the plants of the temperate zone; there are however very few studies investigating genome size in tropical plants. For this reason, the subject of this thesis is the analysis of genome size in the pantropical family Costaceae Nakai. This family presently includes seven genera: Monocostus K.Schum., Dimerocostus Kuntze, Costus L., Paracostus C.D.Specht, Chamaecostus C.D.Specht & D.W.Stev, Hellenia Retz. and Tapeinochilos Miq., counting altogether about 300 species. The family is sister to the family Zingiberaceae, which has been notably better explored due to its economic importance. One of the aims of this thesis was a partial revision of the phylogeny published by Specht (2006). Molecular methods were used to analyse the phylogenetic relationships; these methods included classical sequencing of the trnL-F region and next-generation sequencing, where probes designed in advance were used to obtain the targeted genes....

The hawkweed subgenus Hieracium s. str. is notoriously known for its extreme morphological variability and variation in ploidy levels that is associated with differences in modes of reproduction. Extensive past hybridization is supposed for the subgenus, but recent hybridization was evidenced only in few cases. The subgenus attracts the attention of botanists already for more than a century. Therefore the species diversity is largely examined and the taxonomy of the subgenus is well elaborated, although several contradictory taxonomic concepts exist. However the relationships among the species are unknown and haven't been studied yet. The investigation of these relationships from a phylogenetic perspective using molecular approaches was the main aim of the presented thesis. Basic species (both diploid and polyploid), representing morphologically unique taxa, that are supposed to be the basic evolutionary units of the subgenus were studied. The sequences of two intergenic spacers of the cpDNA (trnT-trnL and trnV-ndhC) and the external transcribed spacer of the nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA ETS) were analyzed. Moreover, three new low-copy nuclear markers with higher variability than nrDNA and cpDNA markers were developed and their suitability for phylogenetic studies in Hieracium s. str. was...

The thesis is focused on phylogeny of the family Torymidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) and evolution of their life-strategies. The study consists of general introduction to the phylogeny and classification of the family Torymidae chapter, four published papers in international journals and one manuscript prepared for submission. Firstly, our aim was to figure out the phylogenetic position of Torymidae as well as the position of other chalcidoid families inside superfamily Chalcidoidea (paper I and II). The supermatrix of sequencies of two ribosomal genes (18S rDNA and 28S rDNA) were developed for 649 species of chalcidoid taxa. However, family Torymidae was considered as polyphyletic group with the subfamily Megastigminae unrelated to the subfamily Toryminae (paper I). Monophyly of Torymidae was corroborated in another study (paper II) focused on molecular and morphological characters. We used a web-based, systematics workbench mx database for scoring 233 characters of 300 members of all chalcidoid families. Contrary to our previous only DNA-based study, we revealed also potential sister relationships of Torymidae with Ormyridae+Colotrechninae or Cerocephalinae+Diparinae respectively. Other paper (paper V) was focused on detailed study of Torymidae phylogeny. A total of 5 genes (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA,...

The current thesis reviews a cross-section of studies dealing with several problems of systematics of the mayfly (Ephemeroptera) family Baetidae. It is based on classic morphological characters as well as molecular-based methods in order to solve specific taxonomic problems and reconstruct phylogenetic relationships within the selected taxa.

The presented thesis deals with the evolution of the social parasitism of Phengaris (Maculinea) butterflies. It consists of three related problems: I) The phylogeny of Glaucopsyche section (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Polyommatinae) {--} the social parasitism occured only once in the Glaucopsyche section. II) The conditions in which the social parasitism of Phengaris evolved {--} the process was probably facilitated by unique species composition of the myrmecofauna of the biotopes inhabited by the ancestor of Phengaris. III) The host specificity of Phengaris {--} today{\crq}s view on the host specificity of Phengaris is poorly supported.