SHREE M. & N. VIRANI SCIENCE COLLEGE, RAJKOT AN AUTONOMOUS INSTITUTE DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY SYLLABUS FOR M.Sc. MICROBIOLOGY ENTRANCE EXAMINATION Unit: 1 Microbiology – Historical Development; pure culture techniques; Light and Electron Microscopy; Staining techniques; Sterilization; Microbial control by physicochemical methods; Antimicrobial agents; Bacterial morphology; Microbial growth; Growth curve; Measurement of microbial growth; physicochemical requirement of growth; types of media; Unit: 2 Water and pH; Chemical bonds; Classification of Carbohydrates, Proteins, amino acids, Lipids and Nucleic acids with their significance; Analytical techniques (Electrophoresis and Chromatography); DNA sequencing techniques, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Unit: 3 Microbial Taxonomy; Numerical taxonomy; phylogeny; Classification techniques; Differences between eukaryotes, prokaryotes and archae, Actinomyces (Actinobacteria), General characteristics, classification and significance of fungi, algae and protozoa; Viruses (Plant, animal and bacteriophages); lytic versus lysogeny Unit: 4 – Applied Microbiology Soil Microbiology (Biogeochemical cycles, Biofertilizers, microbial interactions); Food & Dairy Microbiology (Microbial flora of various foods and milk, food borne infections and intoxication, fermented foods, single cell proteins, microbial analysis of milk – SPC, Direct count, MBRT, Resazurin test, Fermented milk products); Aquatic Microbiology (Microbiology of drinking water, waste water treatment, BOD, COD); Environmental Microbiology (Pollution, types of pollutants, Biomagnification of pesticides, Microbial biodeterioration of Paper, Textiles, paints, woods & metals); biofuel and bioplastic Unit: 5 – Fermentation Technology Basic concepts of a Fermentation process; Isolation, Identification and preservation of a microorganism; Primary and Secondary screening; Strain improvement; Upstream versus Downstream processing; raw medium components, antifoam agents; bioreactors and various designs; Cell separation and Cell disintegration; product recovery; Ethanol and antibiotic fermentation Unit: 6 – Microbial Metabolism and Energetics Bioenergetics; Bacterial photosynthesis; Electron transport chain; Catabolic pathways of Carbohydrates and their regulations; Composition of bacterial membrane, membrane transport, signal transduction, quorum sensing
Unit: 7 – Immunology Types of Immunity (Natural, Acquired, herd, Innate, specific); Cells and organs of immune system; antigen; cellular versus humoral immunity; Types of antibodies; MAbs; In vitro Ag-Ab interactions (Precipitation, Agglutination, RIA, ELISA, Immunoflorescence) Immunodeficiency Diseases; Hypersensitivity; Autoimmune diseases; Process of Infection (steps of infection process, types of infections and virulence factors); Epidemiology; Vaccines Unit: 8 – Molecular Biology and Bio-engineering Mendelian Laws of inheritance; Concept of Gene, Genome and Genomics; DNA replication; Transcription; Translation; Gene regulation (Operon concept); Recombination; Transposition, Transformation, Transduction; Conjugation; Mutations and DNA repair; Genetic engineering technique (Vectors and Restriction enzymes) Unit: 9 – Environmental Science Non-renewable versus Renewable resources; Structure and functions of an ecosystem; Energy flow in the ecosystem; Food chains, Food webs and Ecological pyramids; Succession; Genetic, Species, Ecosystem diversity; Threats to biodiversity; Conservation of biodiversity: in-situ and ex-situ; Environmental pollution (soil, water, Air, Marine, Noise, Thermal), Nuclear hazards; Solid waste management; Climate change; Global warming; Acid rain; Ozone layer depletion; Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)