SYLLABUS FOR THE COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR THE SELECTION OF ICAR SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOWS

PAPER-I GENERAL KNOWLEDGE Section 1: History and Geography of IndiaEvents of significance with specific reference to scientific, cultural and economic life in India. General Awareness. Current events and analysis of their significance. Books, authors, persons, awards, places, projects, sports and athletics. Famous personalities and their achievements in Arts/Science/Social life and trends of thought. Major development programmes in India relating to poverty alleviation, agriculture, rural development etc. Five-Year Plans and their achievementschanges in the economic policies in the country and their impact on the agricultural scenario. Section 2: Agriculture in India. Basic information and data on the natural resources of the country; Agro-climatic and agro-ecological zones, Crops and their production; agricultural inputs and their use. Basic information on animal sciences and fisheries; Major breeds of livestock and their geographic distribution; Information on production and major recent achievements. Nutrition and agricultureBasic information on foods and human nutrition. Quantitative analysis of data relating to agriculture/animal sciences/fisheries. Drawing of conclusions from data, based upon reasoning and logic. Policies in India relating to science, industry, agricultural, forestry. World trade agreement and its possible impact on Indian agriculture. Current trends and achievements in science and scientific research on the global scene. Recent scientific achivements of significance in the country in major areas and their impact on agriculture, animal and fisheries. C3. MICROBIOLOGY (Agriculture) Section 1: History of Microbiology

Evolution of microbial life. Theory of spontaneous generation. Contributions of various scientists to the development of different areas of microbiology. Section 2: Microbial Taxonomy Eucaryotes, procaryotes and archaebacteria, Kingdom procaryote and detailed classification of precaryotes. Techniques used in identification and classification of bacteria-numerical taxonomy, DNA base composition, nucleic acid hybridization,21RNA sequencing and cataloguing, and serological analysis. Important groups of procaryotes-photosynthetic bacteria, chemoautotrophic bacteria, spore forming bacteria and actinomycetes. Heterotrophic bacteria enterobacteria, nitrogenfixing bacteria and cyanobacteria, lactic acid bacteria, halophiles, thermophiles, acidophiles and methanogens. Structure and classification of viruses. Growth curve of viruses. Lytic and lysogenic cycles. Plant viruses. Section 3: Morphology and Cytology Cell structure-procaryotes and eucaryotes. Chemical composition. structure and function of cell wall, cytoplasmic membrance, capsule, flagella, pill, cytoplasmic inclusions, nuclear material and other specialized cell structures-endospore, cysts, heterocysts, akinetes, etc. Section 4: Microbial Ecology Principles of microbial ecology and their application to different ecosystems. Microbiology of ecosystemssoil, rhizosphere, phyllosphere, waterfresh and marine, and air, Microbial interactions-symbiosis, synergism, commensalism, parasitism, amensalism, antagonism and predation, Adoption of micro-organism to various ecosystems. Section 5: Microbial Physiology Bacterial growth and growth curve. Kinetics of growthcontinuous and batch culture, Diauxic and synchronous growth. Microbial nutrition. Bacterial metabolismaerobic and anaerobic respiration, electron transport chain. Oxidative, substrate level and photo-phosphorylation. Biosynthesis of macromolecules-bacterial cell wall, ribosomes, proteins and nucleic acid. Section 6: Microbial Genetics Replication of DNA-primosomes, replisomes, gyrase and heliase. Mutationsspontaneous, induced and site directed; DNA damage and repair, Biochemical genetics-elucidation of biochemical pathways using auxotrophic mutants. Gene transferconjugation,

transduction and transformation. Plasmid and transposons. Recombinant DNA technology (RDT). Importance of RDT over conventional genetic techniques. Restriction enzymes, vectors, DNA cloning and eDNA cloning. Regulation of gene expression-operator, promoter, operon, positive and negative regulatory control (lac operon) and ryptophan operon. Section 7: Microbial Biotechnology Industrial production of metabolitesorganic acids, alcohols, amino acids, organic solvents, antibiotics, vitamins and enzymes. Types of bioreactors. Control of fermentation processesbatch, feedback and continuous. Downstream processing in fermentation industry. Production of single cell proteins, hormones, biofertilizers, biopesticides, bio-pigments, bio-flavours, mushrooms and silage. Section 8: Food Microbiology Microbiology of various foods, milk and water. Role of microbes in fermented and processed foodssauerkraut bread, pickles, cheese, vinegar, bottled and canned foods. Spoilage of fruits, vegetables and processed foods. Methods of food preservation. Food-born diseases and intoxication. Section 9: Soil Microbiology Distribution of microorganisms in soil. Root exudates and rhizosphere effects. Manipulation of rhizosphere microflora in plant productivity, Microbial biomass. Decomposition of plant and animal residues cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and protein. Humus-role in soil fertility. Transformation of nitrogen in soil ammonification, nitrification and denitrification. Biological nitrogen fixationsymbiotic, associative symbiotic and asymbiotic. Biochemistry and genetics of nitrogen fixation. Phosphorus transformations-solubilization and mobilization by bacteria and fungi. Transformations of sulphur. Mycorrhizal symbiosis (ecto and endo)role in agriculture and forestry. Biodegradation of pesticides. Biofertilizers and their role in sustainable agriculture. Biological control of insect pests and plant pathogens. Section 10: Environmental Microbiology Micro-organism pollution of soil, air and water. Sources of pollution and their impact on environment. Microbiology of sewage and industrial effluents and their safe disposal. Management of solid and liquid organic wastes-composting, biogas, production and treatment of sewage, and industrial effluents.

Section 11: Microbiological Techniques Isolation and preservation of different types of microorganisms. Methods of sterilization and disinfection. Optical phase contrast, fluorescent, dark field and electron microscopy. Colorimetry, spectrophotometry, centrifugation, chromatography and gel electrophoresis. Chromosomal and plasmid DNA isolation and characterization. Physical, chemical and site directed mutagens. Microbiological assay of vitamins, amino acids and antibiotics. Microbiological tests for potability of water. Methods for estimation of microbial biomass and nitrogen fixation. Section 12: Statistics Elementary principles of statistics. mean, mode and median. Experimental designs, analysis of variance and chisquare test. Correlation and regression.