Examination Preparation

Archive for the ‘Life Science’ Category

CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) for Junior Research Fellowship and Lecturer-ship

REVISED SYLLABUS

EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 2008 EXAMINATION

SYLLABUS FOR LIFE SCIENCES PAPER I AND PAPER II

Unit 10. ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES
A. The Environment: Physical environment; biotic environment; biotic and abiotic interactions.
B. Habitat and niche: Concept of habitat and niche; niche width and overlap; fundamental and realized niche; resource partitioning; character displacement.
C. Population ecology: Characteristics of a population; population growth curves; population regulation; life history strategies (r and K selection); concept of metapopulation – demes and dispersal, interdemic extinctions, age structured populations.
D. Species interactions: Types of interactions, interspecific competition, herbivory, carnivory, pollination, symbiosis.
E. Community ecology: Nature of communities; community structure and attributes; levels of species diversity and its measurement; edges and ecotones.
F. Ecological succession: Types; mechanisms; changes involved in succession; concept of climax.
G. Ecosystem: Structure and function; energy flow and mineral cycling (CNP); primary production and decomposition; structure and function of some Indian ecosystems: terrestrial (forest, grassland) and aquatic (fresh water, marine, eustarine).
H. Biogeography: Major terrestrial biomes; theory of island biogeography; biogeographical zones of India.
I. Applied ecology: Environmental pollution; global environmental change; biodiversity-status, monitoring and documentation; major drivers of biodiversity change; biodiversity management approaches.
J. Conservation biology: Principles of conservation, major approaches to management, Indian case studies on conservation/management strategy (Project Tiger, Biosphere reserves).

CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) for Junior Research Fellowship and Lecturer-ship

REVISED SYLLABUS

EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 2008 EXAMINATION

SYLLABUS FOR LIFE SCIENCES PAPER I AND PAPER II

Unit 9. DIVERSITY OF LIFE FORMS
A. Principles and methods of taxonomy:Concepts of species and hierarchical taxa, biological nomenclature, classical and quantititative methods of taxonomy of plants, animals and microorganisms.
B. Levels of structural organization: Unicellular, colonial and multicellular forms; levels of organization of tissues, organs and systems; comparative anatomy.
C. Outline classification of plants, animals and microorganisms:Important criteria used for classification in each taxon; classification of plants, animals and microorganisms; evolutionary relationships among taxa.
D. Natural history of Indian subcontinent: Major habitat types of the subcontinent, geographic origins and migrations of species; common Indian mammals, birds; seasonality and phenology of the subcontinent.
E. Organisms of health and agricultural importance: Common parasites and pathogens of humans, domestic animals and crops.

CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) for Junior Research Fellowship and Lecturer-ship

REVISED SYLLABUS

EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 2008 EXAMINATION

SYLLABUS FOR LIFE SCIENCES PAPER I AND PAPER II

Unit 8. INHERITANCE BIOLOGY
A. Mendelian principles: Dominance, segregation, independent assortment, deviation from Mendelian inheritance.
B. Concept of gene: Allele, multiple alleles, pseudoallele, complementation tests.
C. Extensions of Mendelian principles: Codominance, incomplete dominance, gene interactions, pleiotropy, genomic imprinting, penetrance and expressivity, phenocopy, linkage and crossing over, sex linkage, sex limited and sex influenced characters.
D. Gene mapping methods: Linkage maps, tetrad analysis, mapping with molecular markers, mapping by using somatic cell hybrids, development of mapping population in plants.
E. Extra chromosomal inheritance: Inheritance of mitochondrial and chloroplast genes, maternal inheritance.
F. Microbial genetics: Methods of genetic transfers – transformation, conjugation, transduction and sex-duction, mapping genes by interrupted mating, fine structure analysis of genes.
G. Human genetics: Pedigree analysis, lod score for linkage testing, karyotypes, genetic disorders.
H. Quantitative genetics: Polygenic inheritance, heritability and its measurements, QTL mapping.
I. Mutation: Types, causes and detection, mutant types – lethal, conditional, biochemical, loss of function, gain of function, germinal verses somatic mutants, insertional mutagenesis.
J. Structural and numerical alterations of chromosomes: Deletion, duplication, inversion, translocation, ploidy and their genetic implications.
K. Recombination: Homologous and non-homologous recombination, including transposition, site-specific recombination.