A Hundred Years of the 'Czech Question' and The Czech Question a Hundred Years On

Presents the debate between Tomas G. Masaryk & Czech politician Josef Kaizl about the problematic relationship between pragmatics & principles in politics. Masaryk's Ceska otazka(The Czech Question [1895]), which seeks reason & a particular sense of Czech national essence, represents one of the first & most influential attempts to structure the various semantic centers around which Czech political culture revolves. Subjecting Masaryk's religious-humanistic analysis of Czech history to a liberal-economic critique, Kaizl rejected Masaryk's reduced, theistic, & anti-Enlightenment interpretation of the national revival, as well as his explicitly antiliberalist grasp of Czech history. Kaizl also denied Masaryk's claim that spiritual life & spiritual independence are more pressing concerns than political life & state independence

“Apolitics”, “Anti-politics”, “Non-political Politics” and “Sub-politics” as Threats and Challenges

This paper focuses on explaining “the disappearance of politics” from public space roughly a quarter century after the Velvet Revolution. From the perspective of the history of ideas it clarifies several terms, such as “apolitics”, “anti-politics”, “non-political politics” and “sub-politics,” all of which are often used interchangeably in the contemporary Czech political discourse. It outlines the different origins and development of these terms, and how they have been applied in the past. It also shows the relationship between these terms and the issue of forming “civil society”, as well as their role in “party democracy” and their current presence in the execution of political power in post-Communist countries

Michal MACHÁČEK, Gustáv Husák, Praha, Vyšehrad, 2017, 631 s., ISBN 978-80-7429- 388-7

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Molecular cytogenetic differentiation of paralogs of Hox paralogs in duplicated and re-diploidized genome of the North American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula).

BackgroundAcipenseriformes is a basal lineage of ray-finned fishes and comprise 27 extant species of sturgeons and paddlefishes. They are characterized by several specific genomic features as broad ploidy variation, high chromosome numbers, presence of numerous microchromosomes and propensity to interspecific hybridization. The presumed palaeotetraploidy of the American paddlefish was recently validated by molecular phylogeny and Hox genes analyses. A whole genome duplication in the paddlefish lineage was estimated at approximately 42 Mya and was found to be independent from several genome duplications evidenced in its sister lineage, i.e. sturgeons. We tested the ploidy status of available chromosomal markers after the expected rediploidization. Further we tested, whether paralogs of Hox gene clusters originated from this paddlefish specific genome duplication are cytogenetically distinguishable.ResultsWe found that both paralogs HoxA alpha and beta were distinguishable without any overlapping of the hybridization signal - each on one pair of large metacentric chromosomes. Of the HoxD, only the beta paralog was unequivocally identified, whereas the alpha paralog did not work and yielded only an inconclusive diffuse signal. Chromosomal markers on three diverse ploidy levels reflecting different stages of rediploidization were identified: quadruplets retaining their ancestral tetraploid condition, semi-quadruplets still reflecting the ancestral tetraploidy with clear signs of advanced rediploidization, doublets were diploidized with ancestral tetraploidy already blurred. Also some of the available microsatellite data exhibited diploid allelic band patterns at their loci whereas another locus showed more than two alleles.ConclusionsOur exhaustive staining of paddlefish chromosomes combined with cytogenetic mapping of ribosomal genes and Hox paralogs and with microsatellite data, brings a closer look at results of the process of rediploidization in the course of paddlefish genome evolution. We show a partial rediploidization represented by a complex mosaic structure comparable with segmental paleotetraploidy revealed in sturgeons (Acipenseridae). Sturgeons and paddlefishes with their high propensity for whole genome duplication thus offer suitable animal model systems to further explore evolutionary processes that were shaping the early evolution of all vertebrates

The second highest chromosome count among vertebrates is observed in cultured sturgeon and is associated with genome plasticity

Additional file 1: Table S1. Genotyping results with highlighted private dam and sire microsatellite alleles observed at all analysed loci for parental individuals, and for pentaploid (5n) and heptaploid (7n) full siblings