PART-A: Aptitude & General Biotechnology
Aptitude:
Questions may include Comprehension based, where a written paragraph is given for
the students to read and then questions based on that paragraph is asked. They may
be designed to test non-verbal reasoning capacity (e.g., by finding the odd one out in a
series of abstract pictures), they may also be of quantitative type; designed to test the
students ability to comprehend large numbers and do simple calculations.

General Biotechnology
1) Biomolecular structure and function
a) Covalent structure of Amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and
lipids.
b) Forces that stabilize biomolecules: electrostatic and van der Waal‟s interaction,
hydrogen bonding. Interactions with solvents, Hydrophobic effect.
c) Protein Structure: Structural characteristics of -helix, -sheet and -turn.
Ramachandran plot. Protein domains and domain architecture. Quaternary
structure of proteins.
d) Conformation of Nucleic acids: Structural characteristics of A, B and Z-DNA. 3D
structure of t-RNA, ribozymes and riboswitches
e) Basic Thermodynamics: Laws of thermodynamics. Concepts of ∆G, ∆H and ∆S.
f) Physical properties of water and their role in biology. Concepts of pH, ionic
strength and buffers.
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g) Chemical kinetics: Concepts of order and molecularity of a chemical reaction.
Derivation of first and second order rate equation, measurement of rate
constants. Concept of activation energy.
h) Enzymology: Introduction to enzymes. Types of enzymatic reaction mechanisms,
Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Competitive, Non-competitive and Un-competitive
inhibition. Bi-substrate reaction kinetics. Allostery.