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Astragalus excapus L. and Astragalus austriacus Jacq. are regarded as critically endangered species in Slovakia. They are threatened by environmental impact, natural succession, as well as by human activities. Monitoring them is an important tool in determining their status and in making management decisions for their protection. In this contribution, a summary of the basic terrain endeavours, current status, locality and species description, habitat preferences, possible threats, current protection, and management activities are presented.

The paper gives information about both the genesis, and a survey of, the descriptors used for the documentation of plant genetic resources held in ex situ crop collections. The first international documentation standards were developed by the FAO in the 1950s. In 1974, a specific body for plant genetic resources, the IBPGR (International Board for Plant Genetic Resources), was established within the FAO. Since the 1970s, the descriptor lists for main crop collections have been developed, including passport descriptor sets. For the most part, the passport descriptors were common to all crops, with only slight differences. In 1997, the first attempt to create a standard set of descriptors resulted in 24 passport descriptors developed by FAO and IPGRI (International Plant Genetic Resources Institute) working in cooperation. In 2001, the official Multi-Crop Passport Descriptor list (MCPD) was published, including a revised standard set of 28 descriptors. The European ex situ crop catalogue (EURISCO) enlarged the standard set of passport descriptors by adding 6 additional fields in 2002; and another 2 new descriptors were added in November of 2008. A global level of data compatibility is preferred; therefore projects aimed at world-wide utilization and standardization of systems, such as GRINGlobal, and Accession-Level Information System (ALIS), are supported.

A selected set of twenty inter-line F₁ hybrids of Brassica napus L. was evaluated for their capacity to produce microspore-derived doubled haploid (DH) plants subsequently utilized in the breeding project "Czech Winter Rape". All tested genotypes were able to produce microspore-derived embryos based on the standardized protocol previously adopted for the Czech winter rape varieties/breeding lines; nevertheless, significant differences were found in the frequency of microspore-derived embryo production as related to particular genotypes. However, the fertile DH regenerants were obtained only in 12 hybrid lines of this set. The other 8 lines failed to produce fertile DH plants for several reasons, mainly due to altered morphology of microspore embryos connected with limited germination/conversion potential and due to unsuccessful colchicine treatment resulting in haploid or mixoploid (chimeric) regenerants exhibiting partial or full sterility. In general, colchicine treatment induced diploid (doubled haploid), polyploid (triploid, tetraploid) and mixoploid (containing both euploid and aneuploid nuclei) plants. The fully aneuploid plants were recorded only sporadically. Some modifications of culture protocol (removal of embryo cotyledons before transfer to a germination medium; production of more plantlets from a single embryo by rooting multiple shoots; repeated colchicine treatment of unsuccessfully doubled plants in a later phase of growth) could enhance the final yield of DH fertile regenerants in our experiments. In total, 590 microspore-derived regenerants were produced in a series of experiments, 236 (40%) of them represented fully fertile DH plants. The R2 seeds (progeny of DH R1-generation) of the most promising hybrid-lines were included in the tests of agronomic performance in field conditions.

In ornamental gardening, Spiraea × vanhouttei is a frequently planted spirea species in the Czech Republic. In 2003, there arose a suspicion of possible occurrence of fire blight caused by Erwinia amylovora on spirea shrubs in Prague and its environs. This suspicion was disproved for a certainty. The absence of the fire blight pathogen in symptomatic spirea plants stimulates a further effort to tackle the problem of a cause of conspicuous fire blight-like symptoms or inflorescence blast occurring on some spirea shrubs. The subject of this paper is: (i) to describe symptoms, incidence and severity of inflorescence blast, bud and flower abnormalities occurring in Spiraea × vanhouttei shrubs; (ii) to find out differences in the occurrence of blasted inflorescences between Spiraea species and cultivars with the intention of verifying the hypothesis that the blast inflorescence and sterility of some spirea species are associated with hybrid species. Symptoms of inflorescence blast are every growing season. No seed is produced by blasted inflorescences. Besides inflorescence blast, aborted floral buds appeared sporadically on a small scale. Spirea species were split into four categories according to the incidence of blasted inflorescences. Out of 52 species evaluated, 10% showed no or scarce incidence, 52% medium incidence, 27% high incidence and 11% very high incidence. The scarce incidence of blasted inflorescences was connected with the high seed production. And vice versa, very high incidence of blighted inflorescences was closely connected with no or low seed production or with high incidence of sterility. Fifteen out of the evaluated spirea species are the result of hybridization. These hybrids occur in each of the four categories of spirea species distinguished by the incidence of blasted inflorescence. However, it is remarkable that the highest incidence of hybrid spireas occurs in the category with the highest incidence of blasted inflorescence (83.33%). In the remaining three categories of spirea species, the proportion of hybrids ranged from 18 to 21%. It might indicate some connection of spirea hybrids with sterility.

Proteomic techniques that allow the identification and quantification of stress-related proteins, mapping of dynamics of their expression and posttranslational modifications represent an important approach in the research of plant stresses. In this review, we show an outline of proteomics methods and their applications in the research of plant resistance to various types of stresses.

In the course of the 20^th century, the production of beer was substantially changed. Economic pressures led to the concentration, modernisation and automation of the beer and malt production. These changes were reflected in a new view of malting barley varieties' quality. In two last decades, the varieties possessing a strong enzymatic activity, high extract contents and high final attenuation have been promoted. Due to historical reasons, the traditional production of pale lager has been preserved in the Czech brewing. For the production of the Czech-type beer, those varieties of malting spring barley are suitable that enable the production of beer with a higher level of residual extract, strong and full palate, excellent foaming power, and relatively lower alcohol content.

A set of 140 winter barley genetic resources of foreign and domestic origins was tested on experimental basis of RIPP in 1997-1999 to characterise the variability of the accessions based on agronomic data using multivariate methods. In the set tested, variability was studied of selected traits and characteristics such as: plant height (PH), weight of 1000 grains (W), grain number per a spike (SNG), grain uniformity - ratio of front seeds over 2.5 m sieve (GU), vegetation period - sowing/full maturity (VM) and seed yield (Y). Agronomic characters show great variability between cultivars. The study of matrix interrelationships between different variables showed that the yield is greatly correlated with traits: vegetation period - sowing/full maturity, grain uniformity and grain number per a spike. High positive correlation was obtained between the grain uniformity and the weight of 1000 grains. Negative correlation was found between the grain number per a spike and weight of 1000 grains in six-row barley. Correlations between agronomic traits differed between two- and six-row barley sets. The study revealed the existence of genetic differences among accessions as well as differences between two- and six-row winter barley and between the genotypes of domestic and foreign country origin, respectively. Results of this study provided information about diversity which should be of particular interest for the further collecting of genetic resources.

Progression of deoxynivalenol (DON) concentrations in spikes and kernels was studied in relation to Fusarium head blight (FHB) symptoms in five winter wheat cultivars, differing in resistance to FHB, after single floret inoculation with an aggressive isolate of Fusarium culmorum. After inoculation in field conditions the spikes were detached from the plant and kept in the greenhouse under controlled conditions. High concentrations of DON were detected in susceptible cultivars at an early stage of pathogenesis (7 days after inoculation). Over the whole examined 21-day period and also at maturity spikes contained more DON than kernels. While differences between cultivars in the accumulation of DON were highly expressed already 7 days after inoculation, differences in symptomatic reactions were not clear until day 21. Owing to the reported crucial role of DON at early stages of pathogenesis, the importance of appropriate timing of fungicide application is highly stressed.

For 17 cultivars of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) different vernalization and photoperiod responses were detected. The effect of photoperiod sensitivity was not significantly changed by vernalization; different vernalization responses were probably due to the presence of multiple alleles at Vrn loci. The delay in heading depended on the vernalization deficit exponentially: y = Parameter (1) + (y0 - Parameter (1)) × EXP (Parameter (2) × (x - x0)). The dependence was shown to be general and significant for the given model in all the studied cultivars. Individual regressions characterised responses of cultivars to a deficit of vernalization treatment. Cluster analysis according to the characterisation obtained (full vernalization requirement, minimum vernalization requirement, insufficient vernalization and parameters of the dependence) showed the relationships between cultivars and enabled their grouping by similar profiles of vernalization, and, possibly, of photoperiod response. In individual cultivars, an attempt was made to use the model to predict performance for some agronomic traits.