Agricultural Biotechnology Syllabus

Agricultural Biotechnology Syllabus
1. Plant Biology, physiology, molecular biology and seed technology

a) Plant cell structure and function, phloem transport, plant storage proteins and protein
biosynthesis, natural pesticides. Concept of plasticity in plant development; Analyzing plant
growth; Seed Germination and Seedling Growth; Tropisms.
b) Hormonal control of seed germination and seedling growth. Floral Induction and
Development; Photoperiodism and its significance; Vernalization and hormonal control;
Inflorescence and floral determination; Molecular genetics of floral development and floral
organ differentiation
c) Photosynthesis - Light harvesting complexes; mechanisms of electron transport; C3, C4
and CAM pathways. Respiration and photorespiration – Citric acid cycle; plant mitochondrial
electron transport and ATP synthesis; alternate oxidase; photorespiratory pathway, Carbon
Assimilation
d) Nitrogen Fixation and regulation, Role of lectins; Nod factors; nif genes; Nitrogenases;
Leghaemoglobin, Nodulins; Nitrogen metabolism - Nitrate and ammonium assimilation;
amino acid biosynthesis.
e) Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Hormonal and environmental control of
senescence; PCD in the life cycle of plants. Biosynthesis and structure and molecular
mechanisms of plant hormones. Signal Transduction – Basic concepts; Phospholipid and
Ca2+-calmodulin cascade; MAP kinase cascade.
f) Light Control of Plant Development: Molecular mechanisms of light perception, signal
transduction and gene regulation; Biological clocks. Structure, function and mechanisms of
action of phytochromes, cryptochromes and phototropins; stomatal movement.
g) Solute transport and photoassimilate translocation – uptake, transport and translocation of
water, ions, solutes and macromolecules from soil.
h) Plant microbe interaction: Molecular biology of Agrobacterium Infection, Molecular
biology of Rhizobium infection (molecular mechanisms in symbiosis). Arabidopsis in
molecular biology, Forward and Reverse Genetic Approaches, RNA interference,
Transcriptional gene silencing, Gene traps/ T-DNA and transposable element insertion /
activation lines.
i) Seed science and technology: seed processing, seed treatments, Seed storage, Seed
sanitation and certification.
2. Tissue Culture, Transgenic Technologies and Biotechnology

a) Totipotency; Tissue culture media; Plant hormones and morphogenesis; embryogenesis;
Cell suspension culture; Micropropagation – shoot tip culture, somatic embryos, artificial
seeds; Applications of tissue culture; shoot tip culture; Wide hybridization, Anther culture
and dihaploids.
b) Production of alkaloids and other secondary metabolites; Protoplast isolation and
purification; Protoplast culture; Protoplast fusion; Somatic hybrids; Cybrids.
c) Direct transformation of protoplasts using PEG; electroporation; Transformation by
particle bombardment; Chloroplast transformation. Ti plasmid-based transformation; Ti and
Ri plasmids, T-DNA genes, borders, Ti plasmid virulence genes and their functions, Monocot
transformation, binary vector; Floral dip transformation; Targeted gene delivery and methods
of detection
d) Promoters, Plant selectable markers; Reporter genes; Selectable marker elimination;
Transgene silencing and strategies to avoid transgene silencing.
e) Genetic engineering of crops; Codon optimization in the expression of genes in plants,
Commercial status of transgenic plants; Herbicide resistance, glyphosate, sulfonyl urea,
phosphinothricin, atrazine; Pest resistance, Bt toxin; Protease inhibitor; GNA and other
lectins; a-amylase inhibitor; nematode resistance; Genetic engineering for male sterility-
Barnase-Barstar; Delay of fruit ripening; polygalacturanase, ACC synthase, ACC oxidase;
Improved seed storage proteins; Improving and altering the composition of starch and plant
oils; Golden rice for ß-carotene accumulation; Production of antibodies and pharmaceuticals
in plants.
f) Biofuels, Bacillus thuringiensis: molecular basis of insecticidal activity. Agriculturally
important microorganisms and their application. Environmental pollution, Bioremediation,
Biodiversity and conservation
3. Molecular Breeding and Genomics

a) Principles of plant breeding, breeding for self and cross pollinated crops. Heterosis
breeding limitations of conventional breeding.
b) Molecular markers: Restriction based and PCR based; DNA profiling using different
assays- RFLP, RAPD, AFLP, ISSR, SNP etc. Development of SCAR and SSR markers.
c) Gene flow in plants: Development of mapping population - Marker Assisted Selection
(MAS), screening and validation; Trait related markers and characterization of genes
involved; Mapping genes on specific chromosomes; QTL mapping; Gene pyramiding.
d) Development of ESTs. Molecular markers for plant genotyping and germplasm analysis;
Fidelity analysis; settling IPR issues.
e) Marker Assisted Breeding for various traits, Foreground and background selection, gene
introgression and pyramiding, Non-gel based techniques for plant genotyping.
f) Genome organization, Structural and Functional genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics,
Nutrigenomics, interactomics, Metagenomics.
4. Abiotic and Biotic Stress Biology

a) Abiotic stress: Acclimation and crop adaptation to water, salinity, photo oxidative, heavy
metal, heat and cold, nutrient stress. Metabolite engineering for abiotic stress tolerance,
Functional genomics of stress tolerance. Induced systemic tolerance.
b) Biotic stress: Plant response to pathogens and herbivores, biochemical and molecular basis
of host plant resistance , toxins of fungi and bacteria, systemic and induced resistance,
pathogen derived resistance, signaling - gene for gene hypothesis, genetic engineering for
biotic stress resistance, gene pyramiding. Induced systemic resistance, systemic acquired
resistance.
5. Biodiversity
a) Biodiversity Act 2002; Agricultural biodiversity; International Treaty on Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA); Conservation strategies for seed gene bank;
Climate change and conservation of plant genetic resources; Global efforts for management
of crop genetic resources; Strategies on PVFR and Biodiversity Acts.
b) Biodiversity Legislation in India; Indian Biodiversity Act and provisions on crop genetic
resources.
c) Impact of GE crops on Biodiversity. Functions of International union for the protection of
new varieties of plants (UPOV); International treaties relating to Biodiversity.

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Agricultural Biotechnology Syllabus

1. Plant Biology, physiology, molecular biology and seed technology

2. Tissue Culture, Transgenic Technologies and Biotechnology

3. Molecular Breeding and Genomics

4. Abiotic and Biotic Stress Biology

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