GATE Section-XL-S Microbiology Syllabus



Course Syllabus

Unit 1: Historical Perspective

  • Discovery of microbial world

  • Landmark discoveries relevant to the field of microbiology

  • Controversy over spontaneous generation

  • Role of microorganisms in transformation of organic matter and in the causation of diseases

Unit 2: Methods in Microbiology

  • Pure culture techniques
  • Theory and practice of sterilization
  • Principles of microbial nutrition
  • Enrichment culture techniques for isolation of microorganisms
  • Light-, phase contrast- and electron-microscopy

Unit 3: Microbial Taxonomy and Diversity

  • Bacteria, Archaea and their broad classification
  • Eukaryotic microbes: Yeasts, molds and protozoa
  • Viruses and their classification
  • Molecular approaches to microbial taxonomy

Unit 4: Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells: structure and Function

  • Prokaryotic Cells −
    • Cell walls
    • cell membranes
    • mechanisms of solute transport across membranes
    • Flagella and Pili
    • Capsules
    • Cell inclusions like endospores and gas vesicles
  • Eukaryotic cell organelles −
    • Endoplasmic reticulum
    • Golgi apparatus
    • Mitochondria
    • Chloroplasts

Unit 5: Microbial Growth

  • Definition of growth
  • Growth curve
  • Mathematical expression of exponential growth phase
  • Measurement of growth and growth yields
  • Synchronous growth
  • Continuous culture
  • Effect of environmental factors on growth

Unit 6: Control of Micro-Organisms

  • Effect of physical and chemical agents
  • Evaluation of effectiveness of antimicrobial agents

Unit 7: Microbial Metabolism

  • Energetics: redox reactions and electron carriers
  • An overview of metabolism
  • Glycolysis
  • Pentose-phosphate pathway
  • Entner-Doudoroff pathway
  • Glyoxalate
  • Pathway
  • The citric acid cycle
  • Fermentation
  • Aerobic and anaerobic respiration
  • Chemolithotrophy
  • Photosynthesis
  • Calvin cycle
  • Biosynthetic pathway for fatty acids synthesis
  • Common regulatory mechanisms in synthesis of amino acids
  • Regulation of major metabolic pathways

Unit 8: Microbial Diseases and Host Pathogen Interaction

  • Normal microbiota
  • Classification of infectious diseases
  • Reservoirs of infection
  • Nosocomial infection
  • Emerging infectious diseases
  • Mechanism of microbial pathogenicity
  • Nonspecific defense of host
  • Antigens and antibodies
  • Humoral and cell mediated immunity
  • Vaccines
  • Immune deficiency
  • Human diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, and pathogenic fungi

Unit 9: Chemotherapy/Antibiotics

  • General characteristics of antimicrobial drugs
  • Antibiotics: Classification, mode of action and resistance
  • Antifungal and antiviral drugs

Unit 10: Microbial Genetics

  • Types of mutation

  • UV and chemical mutagens

  • Selection of mutants

  • Ames test for mutagenesis

  • Bacterial genetic system: transformation, conjugation, transduction, recombination, plasmids, transposons

  • DNA repair

  • Regulation of gene expression: repression and induction

  • Operon model

  • Bacterial genome with special reference to E. Coli Phage λ and its life cycle

  • RNA phages; RNA viruses; Retroviruses

  • Basic concept of microbial genomics

Unit 11: Microbial Ecology

  • Microbial interactions
  • Carbon, Sulphur and Nitrogen Cycles
  • Soil microorganisms associated with vascular plants

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