GATE Exam Full Syllabus Zoology, Food Technology, Microbiology and Botany

 XL -  Zoology Syllabus 

Section 1: Animal 

Diversity Distribution, systematics and classification of animals, phylogenetic relationships (based on classical and molecular phylogenetic tools). 

Section 2: Evolution 

Origin and history of life on earth, theories of evolution, natural selection, adaptation, speciation. 

Section 3: Genetics 

Basic Principles of inheritance, molecular basis of heredity, sex determination and sex-linked characteristics, cytoplasmic inheritance, linkage, recombination and mapping of genes in eukaryotes, population genetics, genetic disorders, roles of model organisms in understanding genetic principles.  

Section 4: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 

Nucleic acids, proteins, lipids and carbohydrates; replication, transcription and translation, Krebs cycle, glycolysis, enzyme catalysis, hormones and their actions, roles of vitamins and minerals. 

Section 5: Cell Biology 

Basic principles of cellular microscopy, structure of cell, cytoskeletal organization, cellular organelles and their structure and function, cell cycle, cell division, chromosomes and chromatin structure. 

Section 6: Gene expression in Eukaryotes 

Eukaryotic genome organization and regulation of gene expression, transposable elements. 

Section 7: Animal Anatomy and Physiology 

Comparative physiology, the respiratory system, Muscular system, circulatory system, digestive system, the nervous system, the excretory system, the endocrine system, the reproductive system, the skeletal system. 

Section 8: Parasitology and Immunology 

Nature of parasite, host-parasite relation, protozoan and helminthic parasites, the immune response, cellular and humoral immune response. 

Section 9: Development Biology 

Gametogenesis, Embryonic development, cellular differentiation, organogenesis, metamorphosis, Model organisms used in developmental biology, genetic and molecular basis of development, stem cells.

Section 10: Ecology 

The ecosystem, Animal distribution, ecological niche and its contribution to ecological diversity, the food chain, population dynamics, species diversity, zoogeography, biogeochemical cycles, conservation biology, ecotoxicology. 

Section 11: Animal Behaviour 

Type of behaviours, courtship, mating and territoriality, instinct, learning and memory, social behaviour across the animal taxa, communication, pheromones, evolution of behavior in animals. 

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XL - Food Technology  Syllabus 

Section 1: Food Chemistry and Nutrition 

Carbohydrates: structure and functional properties of mono-, oligo-, & poly- saccharides including starch, cellulose, pectic substances and dietary fibre, gelatinization and retrogradation of starch. Proteins: classification and structure of proteins in food, biochemical changes in post mortem and tenderization of muscles. Lipids: classification and structure of lipids, rancidity, polymerization and polymorphism. Pigments: carotenoids, chlorophylls, anthocyanins, tannins and myoglobin. Food flavours: terpenes, esters, aldehydes, ketones and quinines. Enzymes: specificity, simple and inhibition kinetics, coenzymes, enzymatic and non- enzymatic browning. Nutrition: balanced diet, essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, protein efficiency ratio, water soluble and fat soluble vitamins, role of minerals in nutrition, co-factors, anti-nutrients, nutraceuticals, nutrient deficiency diseases. Chemical and biochemical changes: changes occur in foods during different processing.

Section 2: Food Microbiology 

Characteristics of microorganisms: morphology of bacteria, yeast, mold and actinomycetes, spores and vegetative cells, gram-staining. Microbial growth: growth and death kinetics, serial dilution technique. Food spoilage: spoilage microorganisms in different food products including milk, fish, meat, egg, cereals and their products. Toxins from microbes: pathogens and non-pathogens including Staphylococcus, Salmonella, Shebelle, Escherichia, Bacillus, Clostridium, and Aspergillums genera. Fermented foods and beverages: curd, yoghurt, cheese, pickles, soya-sauce, sauerkraut, idly, dose, vinegar, alcoholic beverages and sausage.

Section 3: Food Products Technology 

Processing principles: thermal processing, chilling, freezing, dehydration, addition of preservatives and food additives, irradiation, fermentation, hurdle technology, intermediate moisture foods. Food pack aging and storage: packaging materials, aseptic packaging, controlled and modified atmosphere storage. Cereal processing and products: milling of rice, wheat, and maize, parboiling of paddy, bread, biscuits, extruded products and ready to eat breakfast cereals. Oil processing: expelling, solvent extraction, refining and hydrogenation. Fruits and vegetables processing: extraction, clarification, concentration and packaging of fruit juice, jam, jelly, marmalade, squash, candies, tomato sauce, ketchup, and puree, potato chips, pickles. Plantation crops processing and products: tea, coffee, cocoa, spice, extraction of essential oils and oleoresins from spices. Milk and milk products processing: pasteurization and sterilization, cream, butter, ghee, ice- cream, cheese and milk powder. Processing of animal products: drying, canning, and freezing of fish and meat; production of egg powder. Waste utilization: pectin from fruit astes, uses of by-products from rice milling. Food standards and quality maintenance: FPO, PFA, A-Mark, ISI, HACCP, food plant sanitation and cleaning in place (CIP).

Section 4: Food Engineering 

Mass and energy balance: Momentum transfer: Flow rate and pressure drop relationships for Newtonian fluids flowing through pipe, Reynolds number. Heat transfer: heat transfer by conduction, convection, radiation, heat exchangers. Mass transfer: molecular diffusion and Flick's law, conduction and convective mass transfer, permeability through single and multilayer films. Mechanical operations: size reduction of solids, high pressure homogenization, filtration, centrifugation, settling, sieving, mixing & agitation of liquid. Thermal operations: thermal sterilization, evaporation of liquid foods, hot air drying of solids, spray and freeze-drying, freezing and crystallization. Mass transfer operations: psychometric, humidification and dehumidification operations.

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XL - Microbiology Syllabus

Section 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. 

Section 2: Methods in Microbiology 

Pure culture techniques; Principles of microbial nutrition; Enrichment culture techniques for isolation of microorganisms; antigen and antibody detection methods for microbial diagnosis; Light-, phase contrast-, fluorescence- and electron-microscopy; PCR, real-time PCR for quantitation of microbes; Next generation sequencing technologies in microbiology. 

Section 3: Microbial Taxonomy and Diversity 

Bacteria, Archea and their broad classification; Eukaryotic microbes: Yeasts, molds and protozoa; Viruses and their classification; Molecular approaches to microbial taxonomy and phylogeny. 

Section 4: Prokaryotic Cells: Structure and Function 

Prokaryotic Cells: cell walls, cell membranes and their biosynthesis, mechanisms of solute transport across membranes, Flagella and Pili, Capsules, Cell inclusions like endospores and gas vesicles; Bacterial locomotion, including positive and negative chemotaxis.  

Section 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; Bacterial biofilm and biofouling. 

Section 6: Control of Micro-organisms 

Disinfection and sterilization: principles, methods and assessment of efficacy. 

Section 7: Microbial Metabolism 

Energetics: redox reactions and electron carriers; Electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation; 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. 

Section 8: Microbial Diseases and Host Pathogen Interaction 

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

Section 9: Chemotherapy/Antibiotics 

General characteristics of antimicrobial drugs; Antibiotics: Classification molecular mechanism of mode of action and resistance; Antifungal and antiviral drugs. 

Section 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 ; mutation in virus genomes, virus recombination and reassortment; Basic concept of microbial genomics. 

Section 11: Microbial Ecology 

Microbial interactions; Carbon, sulphur and nitrogen cycles; Soil microorganisms associated with vascular plants; Bioremediation; Uncultivable microorganisms; basic concept of metagenomics and metatranscriptomics.  

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XL - R Botany Syllabus

Section 1: Plant Systematics 

Botanical nomenclature, history of plant taxonomy, diversity and classification of plants, APG system of plant classification; phylogenetics and cladistics, molecular taxonomy and DNA barcoding; Centers for plant taxonomy and herbaria in India. 

Section 2: Plant Anatomy 

Anatomy of root, stem and leaves, floral organs, embryo and young seedlings, Primary and secondary meristems, stellar organization, vascular system and their ontogeny, xylem and phloem structure, secondary growth in plants and wood anatomy, plant cell structure and differences from animal cells. 

Section 3: Plant development; cell and tissue morphogenesis 

Life cycle of an angiosperm, development of male and female gametophyte; cell fate determination and tissue patterning; spacing mechanisms in trichomes and stomata. Embryogenesis, organization and function of shoot and root apical meristems. Transition to flowering: photoperiodism and vernalization, ABC model of floral organ patterning, pollen germination, double fertilization, seed development; Xylem and phloem cell differentiation, photomorphogenesis; phytochrome, cryptochrome, phototropin. Role of auxin, cytokinin, gibberellins, and brassinosteroids on plant development.  

Section 4: Plant physiology and biochemistry 

Plant water relations, mechanisms of uptake and transport of water, ions, solutes from soil to plants, apoplastic and symplastic transport mechanisms. Mechanism of stomatal movements, nitrogen metabolism, photosynthesis; C3, C4 and CAM cycles, photorespiration, respiration: glycolysis, TCA cycle and electron transport chain. Plant responses and mechanisms of abiotic stresses including drought, salinity, freezing and heat stress, metal toxicity; role of abscisic acid in abiotic stresses. Structure and function of biomolecules (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acid), enzyme kinetics. Structure and biosynthesis of major plant secondary metabolites (alkaloids, terpenes, phenylpropanoids, flavonoids). Biosynthesis, mechanism of action and physiological effects of auxin, cytokinin, gibberellic acids, brassinosteroid, ethylene, strigolactone, abscisic acid, salicylic and jasmonic acid. Senescence and programmed cell death. 

Section 5: Genetics and genomics 

Cell cycle and cell division. Principles of Mendelian inheritance, linkage, recombination, genetic mapping; extra chromosomal inheritance; Introduction to epigenetics; gene silencing- transgene silencing, post transcriptional gene silencing, miRNA and siRNA; evolution and organization of eukaryotic genome structure, gene expression, gene mutation and repair, chromosomal aberrations (numerical: euploidy and aneuploidy and structural: deletion, duplication, inversion, translocation), transposons. Model organisms for functional genetics and genomics; Introduction to transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

Section 6: Plant Breeding, Genetic Modification, Genome Editing 

Principles, methods – selection, hybridization, heterosis; male sterility, genetic maps and molecular markers, embryo rescue, haploid and doubled haploids, plant tissue culture: micropropagation, embryo culture and in vitro regeneration, somatic embryogenesis, artificial seed, cryopreservation, somaclonal variation, somatic cell hybridization, marker-assisted selection, gene transfer methods viz. direct and vector-mediated, generation of transgenic plants; Introduction to genome editing: CRISPR/Cas9, Cre-Lox system to generate chimeras; plastid transformation; chemical mutagenesis. 

Section 7: Economic and applied Botany 

A general account of economically and medicinally important plants- cereals, pulses, plants yielding fibers, timber, sugar, beverages, oils, rubber, pigments, dyes, gums, drugs and narcotics. Economic importance of algae, fungi, lichen and bacteria. Major Indian cash crops. Effect of industrialization on agricultural botany such as plastic on fiber economy. Genetically modified crops and its regulation eg. Bt cotton, Bt brinjal golden rice etc.  

Section 8: Plant Pathology 

Nature and classification of plant diseases, diseases of important crops caused by fungi, bacteria, nematodes and viruses, and their control measures (chemical and biological) mechanism(s) of pathogenesis, resistance: basal, systemic, induced systemic resistance, gene for gene concept. Molecular detection of pathogens; plant-microbe interactions: symbionts and mycorrhiza, pathogens and pests. Signaling pathways in plant defence response; salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) in plant-pathogen and plant-herbivore interaction, necrosis; host-parasitic plant interaction (such as Cuscuta). 

Section 9: Ecology and Environment 

Ecosystems – types, dynamics, degradation, biogeochemical cycles, ecological succession; food webs and energy flow through ecosystem; vegetation types of the world, Indian vegetation types and biogeographical zones, climate and flora endemism; pollution and global climate change, speciation and extinction, biodiversity and conservation strategies, ecological hotspots, afforestation, habitat restoration; plant interactions with other organisms; epiphytes, parasites and endophytes.

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