Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Previous years Questions of CSIR-UGC NET

 

1.    If plant with genotype AaBb is self-pollinated where the A and b are not linked, then the probability of getting AABB will be                                                          

a)    1/4                                            

b)    1/8

c)    1/16                                          

d)    1/2

2. During gamete formation alleles which do not undergo recombination segregates during     

a)    Meisosis-I                                           

b)    Meiosis-II

c)    Mitosis                                                

d)    Cleavage

3. Two different mutant of drosophila gives a black body color. When these mutants are crossed all progeny have wild type color. It means mutations are

a)    Co-dominant                                       

b)    Allelic

c)    Non allelic                                          

d)    Epistatic

4. Polygenic traits in crops can be identified by

a)    QTL mapping

b)    Cluster analysis

c)    Tandem array analysis

d)    Gene mapping

5.              A Neurospora Stp strain have start and stop growth behavior. The mutated gene was found to be on mitochondria. If male Neurospora having stp mutation is crossed with wild type female Neurospora. Phenotype of progenies will be  

a)    All start and stop mutant

b)    All wild type

c)    Majority of start and stop mutant

d)    Majority of wild type

6. Under which condition recombination between genes will occur during conjugation

a)    F+ x  F-

b)    F+ x  Hfr-

c)    F- x  Ffr-

d)         F- x  F-

7. Inversion is leads to crossover suppression because

a)    When crossing over occur within an inversion loop, leads to deleted and duplicated crossover chromosomes and inviability of zygote carrying them

b)    No crossing over in the crossing over loop

c)    Crossing over leads to formation of all acentric chromosomes

d)    Segregation of chromosomes is not normal

8. Which of the following is not a co-dominant marker?

a)    RAPD

b)    RFLP

c)    SNP

d)    SMPLs

9. To determine variation in wing length of butterfly from five different places which would be best statistical test?

a)    Chi-square

b)    Student t-test

c)    F-test

d)    Regression analysis

10. In Sickle cell anemia the RBC are sickle celled due to

a)    Change in shape of hemoglobin in oxygen unbound form

b)    Change in shape of hemoglobin in oxygen bound form

c)    Loss of spectrin cytoskeleton protein

d)    Due to loss of ATP synthesis

Answer: 1-c, 2-a, 3-c, 4-a, 5-d, 6-c, 7-a, 8-a, 9-c, 10-1

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Problems of Quantitative Genetics

Question: An individual heterozygous for three genes XxYyZz test crossed to xxyyzz and 1000 progenies are classified by the genetic contribution of the heterozygous parent as follows

XYZ

390

xyz

374

XyZ

27

xYz

30

XYz

5

xyZ

8

Xyz

81

xYZ

85

Total

1000

Draw a linkage map of the linked genes, showing the order and distance in centimorgan (cM).

Solution: 

XYZ

390

Parental type

xyz

374

XyZ

27

Single crossover between Z and Y

xYz

30

XYz

5

Double crossover

xyZ

8

Xyz

81

Single crossover between X and Z

xYZ

85

Total

1000

 


1.             1. XYZ and xyz are parental type

2.         2. Order of the genes

·       Double crossover are always in the lowest frequency in this case  XYz and xyZ are in the lowest frequency

·       A DCO event moves the middle allele from one sister chromatid to the other.

·       This event places the non-parental allele of the middle gene onto a chromosome with the parental alleles of the two flanking genes.

·       Z gene must be in the middle because the recessive z allele is now on the same chromosome as the X and Y allele and the dominant Z allele on the same chromosome as the recessive x and y alleles.

Therefore, gene order is XZY.





Sunday, April 19, 2020

How to calculate possible number of allele combination in given genotype?

Combination of alleles in any organims is known as its genotype. An allele is one of two or more alternate forms of a gene located at the corresponding locus on homologous chromosome. One allele obtained from the mother and the other from the father. Any possible combination of alleles is possible for the individuals within a particular population. If three alleles, A, B, and C are present on any specific locus, there will be six genotypes possible. An individual with above alleles may have any of the following allele combinations: AA, AB, AC, BB, BC and CC.

The number of possible genotypes or possible combination of alleles can be calculated by two methods. 

(1) It can be calculated by adding the number of possible combination of alleles with each positive integer below that number. For example, for a locus having three possible alleles, the number of possible genotypes is                                              3+2+1= 6


(2) The number of possible combination of alleles can also be calculated by using following formula
Number of allele combination = n(n+1)/2

Where, n is equal to the number of possible alleles.Here, number of alleles are 3,Therefore,
                                     3(3+1)/2 = 12/2=6

From above discussion, we can say that there are six possible allele combination occur if any individual have three alleles.

Problem:  There are 15 different alleles are present at a VNTR (variable number of tandem repeats) locus. How many combination of alleles (genotypes) are possible in a population for this VNTR?Explanation:
We can calculate by using both aforementioned methods


          (1)     15+14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1= 120


          (2)     By the use of formula
     Number of allele combination =15(15+1)/2=(15)(16)/2=240/2                        
                                                       =120


Therefore, for a locus having 15 different alleles, 120 different allele combination or genotypes are possible. 

Friday, April 10, 2020

How SARS CoV-2 infects human?

Structure of Coronavirus: 

(Image source: Stephen N.J.Korsman et al. (2012). Human coronaviruses. Virology (2012): 94-95)

Life cycle of SARS CoV-2

Attachment and entry

The virus attached with the host cell by the spike protein and its receptor. The receptor binding domain (RBD) on spike protein recognizes the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) receptor on host cell and attaches to it. After attachment with host cell, virus is able to enter the host cell. There are two different ways to enter the host cell. The mechanism of entrance into host cell is depends on the host protease, protease cleave and activate the receptor-attached spike protein.
The first mechanism SARS CoV-2 follow to enter the host cell is endocytosis and uptake of the virus in an endosome. The receptor-attached spike protein is then cleaved and activated by the host's pH-dependent cysteine protease cathepsin L. When this receptor-attached spike protein gets activated introduces a conformational change, and the later fusion of the viral envelope with the endosomal wall occurs.

In other mechanism, the SARS CoV-2 can enter the host cell directly by proteolytic cleavage of the receptor-attached spike protein by the host's TMPRSS2 or TMPRSS11D serine proteases at the cell surface. In the SARS coronavirus, the activation of the C-terminal part of the spike protein triggers the fusion of the viral envelope with the host cell membrane by inducing conformational changes.

Genome translation


After fusion the viral nucleocapsid passes into the cytoplasm, where the viral genome is released. The viral genome acts as a messenger RNA (mRNA), and the host cell's ribosome translates two-thirds of the genome into two large overlapping polyproteins, pp1a and pp1ab.
These polyproteins have their very own proteases, PLpro and 3CLpro, which cleave the polyproteins at specific sites. Polyprotein pp1ab yields 16 nonstructural proteins (nsp1 to nsp16) after cleavage. Product proteins include various replication proteins such as RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), RNA helicase, and exoribonuclease (ExoN).

Replication and transcription

Many nonstructural replication proteins collectively form a multi-protein replicase-transcriptase complex (RTC). RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) is the main replicase-transcriptase protein. This protein directly involved in the replication and transcription of RNA from an RNA strand. The other nonstructural proteins of the complex assist in the replication and transcription process.
(Image source: Smith EC, Denison MR (2013). Coronaviruses as DNA Wannabes: A New Model for the Regulation of RNA Virus Replication Fidelity. PLoS Pathog 9(12): e1003760.)
The protein nsp15 acts as a 3'-5' exoribonuclease and provides a proofreading function to the complex which the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase dos’nt has. Proteins nsp7 and nsp8 form a hexadecameric sliding clamp as part of the complex which significantly increases the processivity of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Due to large genome size the coronaviruses needs the increased fidelity and processivity during RNA synthesis.
One of the main roles of the (RTC) is to transcribe the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules from the positive-sense genomic RNA. After transcription of these negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules, transcription of their corresponding positive-sense mRNAs takes place.
The other important function of the RTC is to replicate the viral genome. Replication of positive-sense genomic RNA is from the negative-sense genomic RNA.
This replicated positive-sense genomic RNA becomes the genome of the progeny viruses. The various smaller mRNAs are transcribes from the last third of the virus genome. These mRNAs are translated into the four structural proteins (S, E, M, and N) that will become part of the progeny virus particles and also eight other accessory proteins which assist the virus.

Assembly and release

RNA translation takes place inside the endoplasmic reticulum. The viral structural proteins S, E and M move along the secretory pathway into the Golgi intermediate compartment. There, the M proteins direct most protein-protein interactions required for assembly of viruses following its binding to the nucleocapsid. Progeny viruses are released from the host cell by exocytosis through secretory vesicles.
(Image source: 

Zhiqi Song et al., (2019). From SARS to MERS, Thrusting Coronaviruses into the Spotlight. Viruses 11(1), 59)

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Coronavirus


Virus classification
Phylum                 incertae sedis
Order                   Nidovirales
Family                   Coronaviridae
Subfamily             Orthocoronavirinae

Species of Alphacoronavirus
Human coronavirus 229EHuman coronavirus NL63Miniopterus bat coronavirus 1 etc.
Species of Betacoronavirus
Human coronavirus HKU1, Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2), Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS) etc.
Species of Gammacoronavirus
Infectious bronchitis virus etc.
Species of deltacoronavirus
Bulbul coronavirus HKU11 etc.

There are seven strains of human coronavirus, four strains of which produce the generally mild symptoms of the common cold:
1.   Human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43)
2.   Human coronavirus HKU1
3.   Human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63, New Haven coronavirus)
4.   Human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E)
and three strains cause severe symptoms:
1.   Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV), previously known as novel coronavirus 2012 and HCoV-EMC
2.   Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or "SARS-classic")
3.   Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), previously known as 2019-nCoV or "novel coronavirus 2019"
Some interesting facts about SARS-CoV2:
·        Previously it was known as 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
·        SARS-CoV2 is responsible for pandemic COVID-19
·        Outbreak of SARS-CoV2 is declared as pandemic by WHO on March 11, 2020.
·        It is the seventh known coronavirus to infect people, after 229E, NL63, OC43, HKU1, MERS-CoV, and the original SARS-CoV.
·        Its transmission occurs by respiratory droplets like cough and sneeze within the range of 2 metre.
·        Size of SARS-CoV2 is 50-200nm in diameter.
·        SARS-CoV-2 has four structural proteins, known as the S (spike), E (envelope), M (membrane), and N (nucleocapsid) proteins; the N protein holds the RNA genome, and the S, E, and M proteins together create the viral envelope.
·        Spike protein is responsible for attachment of virus to host membrane.
·        Genome of SARS-CoV2 is positive-sense single-stranded RNA (+ssRNA).
·        Its genome is of 30kb length.
·        SARS-CoV2 bind with angiotensin converting enzyme2 (ACE2) receptors of human cells and enter into cells.
COVID-19 Update (till March 22, 2020 at 7:00 PM IST)

Total Coronavirus Cases: 317,298

Deaths:13,642

Recovered: 95,949
Active cases
Closed cases
207,707
Currently Infected Patients

109,591
Cases which had an outcome:

197,565 (95%)
in Mild Condition

10,142 (5%)
Serious or Critical

95,949 (88%)
Recovered / Discharged

3,642 (12%)
Deaths


COVID-19 Update (till March 22, 2020 at 5:30 AM IST)

Total cases
New cases
Total deaths
New deaths
Total recovered
Active cases
Serious, critical
Total cases/1M population
360
28
7
2
24
329

0.3

Outbreak of Coronavirus related diseases

Outbreak
Virus
SARS, 2003
SARS-CoV
MERS, 2012
MERS-CoV
MERS, 2015
MERS-CoV
MERS, 2018
MERS-CoV
COVID-!9
SARS-CoV2


Real Time PCR and its Application in Plant Pathology-III

Relevant Features of Real-Time PCR            Rapidity : Compared with classical PCR, real-time PCR is rapid to provide reliable data. T...