DNA REPLICATION:
Comparative account on initiation, elongation and termination in prokaryotes and eukaryotes DNA Repair: Mismatch correction, Mechanisms in thymine-dimer repair: Photoreactivation, Nucleotide excision repair, SOS repair DNA Recombination: Homologous and non-homologous recombination; Holliday Model; Site specific recombination: General mechanism, Examples: SSR in Bacteriabacteriophage, FLP/FRT and Cre/Lox recombination. Transcription: Prokaryotic & Eukaryotic Mechanisms; Significance of Promoters, Enhancers, Silencers, Transcription factors, Activators and repressors; Post transcriptional modifications; Transcription inhibitors
GENETIC CODE AND ITS PROPERTIES:
Wobble hypothesis. Translation: Role of Ribosomes & tRNA; Mechanism of translation: Activation of amino acids, initiation complex formation, elongation of polypeptide, termination and release of polypepetide; Posttranslational modifications; Transport of proteins and molecular chaperones. Transcriptional regulation in Prokaryotes: General mechanism of positive and negative control; Operon concept: lac, trp, and gal operons; Transcriptional control in Eukaryotes: Chromatin remodeling: Acetylation and deacetylation of histone proteins; Regulatory proteins: DNA binding transactivators, coactivators; Homeotic gene and their role in gene regulation.
VECTORS:
Plasmids, Phage Vectors, Phagemids, Cosmids, YACs and BACs; Cloning & Expression vectors. Enzymes in genetic engineering: Restriction Enzymes, DNA ligase, Klenow enzyme, T4 DNA polymerase, Polynucleotide kinase, Alkaline phosphatase. Methods in construction of recombinant vectors: Linkers, Adaptors, Homopolymeric tailing. Techniques in Genetic Engineering: Construction of libraries: Genomic and cDNA libraries. Hybridization techniques: Northern and Southern hybridizations. Polymerase Chain Reaction: General mechanism and applications; Variants of PCR; In vitro mutagenesis.
GENE TRANSFER TECHNIQUES INTO PLANTS:
Microprojectile bombardment; Agrobacterium transformation, Ti plasmid: structure and functions, Ti plasmid based vectors, mechanism of TDNA transfer; Chloroplast transformation; Transgenic science in plant improvement: resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, biopharming – plant s as bioreactors
Introduction of DNA into mammalian cells; Animal vectors and Transfection techniques; Transgenic science for improvement of animals and livestock, animal as bioreactors for recombinant proteins. Gene transfer techniques into microbial cells: transformation, electroporation, lipofection, calcium phosphate mediated; Genetic manipulation of microbes for the production of insulin, growth hormones.