The genome of Bread wheat is still poorly understood, mainly due to its enormous size, hexaploid status and abundant repetitive sequences. Chromosome genomics simplifies the task by targeting single chromosomes and their arms. Advantages of this strategy over awhole-genome approach include the avoidance of problems due to the presence of homoeologs, reduction of work to manageable portions, cost efficiency and an opportunity for collaboration. and Jan Vrána.
Armenia is a small country situated in the Transcaucasus on the border of Europe and Asia. For visitors from Central Europe, the huge landscape variety from the perspective of geological, geomorfological and climatic factors is surprising, as well as the vegetation and floristic diversity. Here alpine vegetation, semideserts, phryganoid vegetations and mountain steppes occurre in the same area, together with interesting forest vegetation types. Beautiful country - side rich in ancient historical monuments is a great treasure for this small country lying at the crossroads of cultures, biogeo - graphical regions and migration routes. and Ester Ekrtová, Libor Ekrt.
Forest vegetation occupied some 20 % of this Armenian area, with forests of three types. Open forests consist of short, rather sparse trees (juniper/pistachio/oak). Alluvial vegetation occurs as a narrow belt of trees or scrub along rivers and streams. Deciduous forests usually develop in more humid places and may show interesting parallels to our lowland and upland forests. Traditional management (in Europe practi - sed in the past) is maintained, providing an inspiration for our nature conservation. and Ester Ekrtová, Libor Ekrt.
In Armenia, more than 50 % of the territory lies at an altitude of over 2 000 metres a. s. l. The overall landscape and the mountain flora and vegetation are determined by volcanic areas alternating with crystalline massif or limestone areas. and Ester Ekrtová, Libor Ekrt.
The extremely dry lower altitudes of Armenia are occupied by semi-desert and phryganoid xerophyte plant communities with many rare endemics, useful wild plant species and wild relatives of cultivated plants. The rather high proportion of semi- -desert vegetation was transformed to agricultural areas due to irrigation. At higher altitudes, steppes and meadow-steppes are abundant and thorn-cushion communities are rather widespread too. In regions with high annual precipitation, meadows represent species rich and ornamental forest-free vegetation. and Ester Ekrtová, Libor Ekrt.
Water-lilies (the genus Nymphaea) are one of the most ancient groups of aquatic plants. Two species (N. alba and N. candida) are native to the flora of the Czech Republic, both are critically endangered. Morphological similarities, large phenotypic variation and putative interspecific hybridization pose difficulties for species identification. The amount of nuclear DNA was found to be a reliable characteristic that allows not only species but also their hybrids to be re - cognized. Native species are mainly threa - tened by the loss of suitable habitats and planting of garden cultivars in natural sites. and Klára Kabátová, Petr Vít, Jan Suda.
The Southern Urals are an inspiring place for Czech naturalists. This paper provides basic information on this seldom visited region and describes the impressions of the two Czech biologists from their excursion to this place. The nature of the Southern Urals captivated them with its wildness, unrivalled in present-day Central Europe, its intrinsic order and the similarities with Central European nature. and Jan Roleček, Jan Losík.