AIEEE BIOLOGY (Botany & Zoology)

Unit: 1 The Living World
Nature and scope of Biology. Methods of Biology. Our place in the universe. Laws that govern the universe and life. Levels of organisation. Cause and effect relationship.

Being alive -- what it means? Present approach to understand life processes -- molecular approach; life as an expression of energy; steady state and homeostasis; self duplication and survival; adaptation; death as a positive part of life.

Origin of life and its maintenance. Origin and diversity of life. Physical and chemical principles that maintain life processes, the living crust and interdependence. The positive and negative aspects of progress in biological sciences. The future of the living world, identification of human responsibility in shaping our future.

Unit: 2 Unity of Life
Cell as a unit of life. Small biomolecules; water, minerals, mono - and oligosaccharides, lipids, amino acids, nucleotides and their chemistry, cellular location and function. Macromolecules in cells -their chemistry, cellular location and functional significance. Polysaccharides, proteins and nucleic acids. Enzymes; chemical nature, classification, mechanism in action-enzyme complex, allosteric modulation (brief), irreversible activation. Biomembranes. Fluid mosaic model of membrane in transport and recognition of external information (brief). Structural organisation of the cell; light and electron microscopic views of cell, its organelles and their functions; Nucleus, mitochondria, chloroplasts, endoplasmic reticulum. Golgi complex, Lysosomes, microtubules, cell wall, cilia and flagella, vacuoles, cell inclusions. A general account of cellular respiration. Fermentation, biological oxidation, mitochondrial electron transport chain, high energy bonds and oxidative phosphorylation, cell reproduction; Process of mitosis and meiosis.

Unit: 3 Diversity of Life
Introduction. The enormous variety of living things, the need for classification to cope with this variety; taxonomy and phylogeny; shortcoming of a two kingdom classification as plants and animals; a five kingdom classification. Monera, Protista, Plantae, Fungi and Animalia. The basic features of five kingdom classification; modes of obtaining nutrition--autotrophs and heterotrophs. Life styles: producers, consumers and decomposers, Unicellularity and multicellularity, phylogenetic relationships. Concepts of species, taxon and categories -hierarchical levels of classification; binomial nomenclature; principles of classification and nomenclature; identification and nature of viruses and bacteriophages and organisms. Kingdom Monera--archaebacteria -life in extreme environments; Bacteria, actinomycetes, Cyanobacteria. Examples to illustrate autotrophic and heterotrophic life style; mineralizer-nitrogen fixers; Monera in cycling matter; symbiotic forms; disease producers. Kingdom Protista-Eucarytoic unicellular organisms; development of flagella and cilia; beginning of mitosis; syngamy and sex. Various life styles shown in the major phyla. Evolutionary precursors of complex life forms. Diatoms, dinoflagellates, slime moulds, protozoan; symbiotic forms. Plant kingdom -- complex autotrophs, red, brown and green algae; conquest of land, bryophytes, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms. Vascularization; development of flower, fruit and seed. Kingdom fungi - Iower fungi (Zygomycetes) higher fungi (Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes); the importance of fungi. Decomposers; parasitic forms; lichens and mycorrhizae, animal kingdom - animal body pattern and symmetry. The development of body cavity in invertebrate vertebrate phyla. Salient feature with reference to habitat and examples of phylum porifera, coelenterata, helminths, annelids, mollusca, arthropoda, echinoderms; chordata (classes -- fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) highlighting major characters.

Unit: 4 Organism and Environment
Species: Origin and concept of species, population; interaction between environment and populations; community. Biotic community, interaction between different species, biotic stability, changes in the community - succession. Ecosystem; Interaction between biotic and abiotic components; major ecosystems, manmade ecosystem -- Agroecosystem. Biosphere; flow of energy, trapping of solar energy, energy pathway, food chain, food web, biogeochemical cycles, calcium and sulphur, ecological imbalance and its consequences. Conservation of natural resources; renewable and non-renewable (in brief). Water and land management, wasteland development. Wild life and forest conservation; causes for the extinction of some wild life, steps taken to conserve the remaining species, concept of endangered species -- Indian examples, conservation of forest; Indian forests, importance of forests, hazards of deforestation, afforestation. Environmental pollution; air and water pollution, sources, major pollutants of big cities of our country, their effects and methods of control, pollution due to nuclear fallout and waste disposal, effect and control, noise pollution -- sources and effects.

Unit: 5 Multicellularity: Structure and Function -- Plant Life
Form and function. Tissue system in flowering plants; meristematic and permanent. Minerals nutrition -- essential elements, major functions of different elements, passive and active uptake of minerals. Modes of nutrition, transport of solutes and water in plants, Photosynthesis; photochemical and biosynthetic phases, diversity in photosynthetic pathways, photosynthetic electron transport and photophosphoryliation, photorespiration. Transpiration and exchange of gases. Stomatal mechanism. Osmoregulation in plants; water relations in plant cells, water potential. Reproduction and development in Angiosperm plants; asexual and sexual. Structure and functions of flower: development of male and female gametophytes in angiosperms, pollination, fertilization and development of endosperm, embryo, seed and fruit. Differentiation and organ formation. Plant hormones and growth regulation; action of plant hormones in relation to seed dormancy and germination, apical dominance, senescence and abscission. Applications of synthetic growth regulators. A brief account of growth and movement in plants.

Unit: 6 Multicellularity: Structure and Function -- Animal Life
A nimal tissues, epithelial, connective, muscular, nerve. Animal nutrition; organs of digestion and digestive process, nutritional requirements for carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins: nutritional imbalances and deficiency diseases. Gas exchange and transport: Pulmonary gas exchange and organs involved, transport of gases in blood, gas exchange in aqueous media. Circulation: closed and open vascular systems, structure and pumping action of heart, arterial blood pressure, lymph. Excretion and osmoregulation. Ammonotelism, Ureotelism, uricotelism, excretion of water and urea with special reference to man. Role of kidney in regulation of plasma, osmolarity on the basis of nephron structure, skin and lungs in excretion. Hormonal coordination; hormones of mammals, role of hormones as messengers and regulators. Nervous coordination: central, autonomic and peripheral nervous systems, receptors, effectors, reflex action, basic physiology of special senses, integrative control by neuroendocrinal systems. Locomotion; joints, muscle movements, types of skeletal muscles according to types of movement, basic aspects of human skeleton. Reproduction; human reproduction, female reproductive cycles. Embryonic development in mammals (upto three germ l ayers).

Unit: 7 Continuity of Life
Heredity and variation: Introduction, Mendel's experiments with peas and idea of factors. Mendel's laws of inheritance. Genes: Packaging of heredity material in prokaryotes -- bacterial chromosome; plasmid and eukaryote chromosomes. Extranuclear genes, viral genes, linkage(genetic) maps. Sex determination and sex linkage. Genetic material and its replication, Gene expression; genetic code, transcription, translation, gene regulation. Molecular basis of differentiation.

Unit: 8 Origin and Evolution of Life
Origin of life: Living and non-living, chemical evolution, organic evolution; Oparin ideas, Miller-Urey experiments. Intererelationship among living organisms and evidences of evolution: fossil records including geological time scale, Morphological evidence -- homology, vestigial organs, embryological similarities and biogeographical evidence.

Darwin's two major contributions. Common origin of living organisms and recombination as sources of variability, selection acts upon variation, adaptation (Ledergerg's replica plating experiment for indirect selection of bacterial mutants), reproductive isolation, speciation. Role of selection change and drift in determining composition of population. Selected examples: industrial melanism; drug resistance, mimicry, malaria in relation to G-6-PD deficiency and sickle cell disease.
Mutation- Their role in speciation. Their origin in speciation, their origin in organisms.

Unit: 9 Application of Biology
Biofertilisers -- green manure, crop residues and nitrogen fixation (symbiotic, non-symbiotic). Applications of tissue culture and genetic engineering in crops. Domestication and introduction of animals. Livestock, poultry, fisheries (fresh water, marine, aquaculture). Improvement of animals: principles of animal breeding.'Major animal diseases and their control. Insects and their products (silk, honey, wax and lac). Bioenergy, biomass, wood (combustion, gasification, ethanol). Cow dung cakes, gobar gas, plants as sources of hydrocarbons for producing petroleum, ethanol from starch and lignocellulose. Biotechnology, a brief historical account-manufacture of cheese, yoghurt, alcohol, yeast, vitamins, organic acids, antibiotics, steroids, dextrins. Scaling up laboratory findings to Industrial production. Production of insulin, human growth hormones, interferon. Communicable diseases including diseases spread through blood transfusion (hepatitis, AIDS, etc) Immune response, vaccines and antisera. Allergies and Inflammations. Inherited diseases and dysfunctions, sex-Iinked diseases, genetic incomptibilities, and genetic counselling. Cancer -- major types, causes, diagnosis and treatment. Tissue and organ transplantation. Industrial wastes, toxicology, pollution-related diseases. Biomedical engineering -spare parts for man, instruments for diagnosis of diseases and care.