EXERCISE

1. Picking up only homozygous plants for further cultivation is known as

(A) Mass selection (B) Pure line selection (C) Clone (D) Acclimitization

2. Importing better varieties of plants from outside and acclimitising them to local environment is
(A) Selection (B) Cloning (C) Introduction (D) Heterosis

3. Heterosis is
(A) Appearance of spontaneous mutation (B) Induction of mutation
(C) Mixture of two or more traits (D) Superiority of hybrid over their parents

4. Cutting of anthers from the intersexual flowers called

(A) Emasculation (B) Male sterile line
(C) Artificial pollination (D) Selective or differential reproduction

5. Polyploidy is induced through

(A) Colchicine (B) Irradiation
(C) Mutagenic chemicals (D) Ethylene

6. Progeny is heterozgous in case of

(A) Mutation (B) Autopolyploidy (C) Hybridisation (D) Selective breeding

7. Norin-10 gene is famous for

(A) Gigas effect (B) Dwarfine effect (C) Aromatic effect (D) Early maturation effect

8. Dee-geo-woo-gen is dwarfing gene of

(A) Rice (B) Barley (C) Oat (D) Maize

9. Modification and adjustment of an organism to local environment is called

(A) Introduction (B) Selection (C) Acclimitisation (D) Quarantine

10. Amber coloured Wheat is produced form red coloured Mexican Wheat is
(A) Sharbati sonora (B) Pusa Lerma (C) Both 1 and 2 (D) Tanchung Native 1

11. Potato famine of Ireland was caused by attack of fungus

(A) Phytophthora palmivora (B) Plasmopara viticola
(C) Puccinia graminis (D) Phytophthora infestans

12. Natural resistance to late blight of Potato present in

(A) Solanum tuberosum (B) Solanum acaule (C) S. demissum (D) S. Stolniferum

13. Grains of major cereals and millets lack amino acids

(A) Methionine and cysteine (B) Methionine and lysine
(C) Tryptophan and cysteine (D) Lysine and tryptophan

14. Pulses usually lack amino acids

(A) Methionine and tryptophan (B) Cysteine and methionine
(C) Cysteine and tryptophan (D) Methionine and tryptophan

15. Lysine rich Maize variety is

(A) Protina (B) Rattan (C) Shakti (D) All the above

16. Antinutritional factor present in Rapeseed and Mustard oil cakes is

(A) Glucosinolates (B) Cyanogenic glycolipids
(C) Isoflavonoids (D) Cyanoalanine

17. Prolonged use of seeds of Lathyrus sativus causes a debilitating disorder due to presence of
(A) Amygdalin (B) Cyanogenic glucosides
(C) Neurotoxin (D) Glucodsinolates

KVPY_SX_BOTANY # 129
18. Evaluation of newly evolved varieties is carried out by
(A) All agricultural universities (B) ICAR
(C) IARI (D) National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources
19. Explant is
(A) Plant collected after harvesting
(B) Exploited part of a plant
(C) Small part of the plant meant for tissue culture
(D) Uprooted for transplantation
20. A technique of micropropagation is
(A) Multiples shoot production
(B) Multiple shoot production and somatic embryogenesis
(C) Growth of micro-organisms on culture medium
(D) Somatic embryogenesis

21. Embryoid is
(A) Nonzygotic embryo (B) Nonfunctional embryo
(C) Parthenogenetic embryo (D) An early stage in callus differentiation

22. Name the tissue culture technique used to grow nonviable inter-specific hybrids
(A) Androgenic haploids (B) Shoot tip culture
(C) Somatic embryogenesis (D) Embryo rescue

23. Variations appearing in tissue culture are

(A) Culture variations (B) Auxotrophs
(C) Somaclonal variations (D) None of these

24. Somatic hybridisation is achieved through

(A) Grafting (B) Protoplast fusion
(C) Conjugation (D) Recombinant DNA technology

25. Which one is required for protoplast fusion?

(A) Treatment with cellulase and pectinase (B) Electrofusion of PEG treatment
(C) Both 1 and 2 (D) Recombinant DNA technology

26. Callus formation is promoted by

(A) Proper light and subculturing (B) Darkness and subculturing
(C) Excess of NAA (D) Absence of salts
27. Explant is required to be disinfected before placing in culture. this is done by
(A) Autoclaving (B) Ultra-violet rays
(C) Clorax or hypochlorite (D) X-rays
28. Virus free plants can be obtained through
(A) Shoot tip culture (B) Haploid culture (C) Protoplast fusion (D) Embryo culture
29. An androgenic plant can be converted into homozygous diploid plant through the application of
(A) Nitrogen mustard (B) Nitrous acid (C) Colchicine (D) Acridine orange
30. Which technique can be helpful in over-coming hybridisation barrier ?
(A) Shoot tip culture (B) Embryo rescue (C) Protoplst fusion (D) both 2 and 3

31. Vegetative propagation through cell or tissue culture is known as

(A) Macropropagation (B) cloning (C) Micropropagation (D) Asexual propagation

32. Farmers need to apply less nitrogenous fertilizers to fields if one of these plants are present
(A) Rhodophyceae (B) Spirogyra (C) Azolla sps (D) Weeds

KVPY_SX_BOTANY # 130
33. Utilization of living organisms / systems, processes for producing materials useful to human society is
known as
(A) Applied biology (B) Technology (C) Biotechnology (D) Biomedical engineering

34. Nobel Prize of 1978 for restrication endonuclease technology was given to
(A) Temin and Baltimore (B) Milstein and Kohler
(C) Arber, nathans and Smith (D) Holley, Khorana and Nirenberg

35. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a powerful technique to

(A) Mutate genes (B) Genes
(C) Inhibit DNA synthesis (D) Induce protein synthesis

36. Genetic engineering would not have been possible if one of these were absent
(A) DNA polymerase (B) Reverse transcriptase
(C) DNA ligase (D) RNA synthetase

37. In the process of recombinant DNA technology, the isolated foreign DNA is inserted into another DNA molecule
known as
(A) DNA vector (B) RNA vector (C) Protein vector (D) Cloning vector

38. The technique for breakage of DNA fragment and inserting it into another DNA molecule, is related to
(A) Gene splicing (B) Gene cloning (C) Gene migration (D) DNA finger printing

39. To prevent recirculation of vector DNA and to increase the frequency of production of recombinant DNA
(A) Reverse transcriptase is used (B) Alkaline phosphatases are used
(C) Acid phosphatases are used (D) All of them can be used

40. “Molecular Scissors” used in genetic engineering is

(A) DNA polymerase (B) DNA ligase
(C) Restriction endonuclease (D) Helicase

41. The term biotechnology was given is 1917 by

(A) Arber (B) Nathans (C) Karl Ereky (D) Kornberg

42. How many types of restriction endonucleases are present?

(A) Two types (B) Three types (C) Four types (D) Five types

43. Which type of restriction enzymes are used in recombinant DNA technology?
(A) Type-I (B) Type-II (C) Type-III (D) All of the above

44. The first restriction endonuclease was

(A) Eco R-II (B) Hind-II (C) Hind-III (D) Ava-I

45. Each restriction endonuclease recognises a ............. sequences in the DNA.

(A) Nucleotide sequence (B) Nucleoside sequence
(C) Palindromic nucleotide sequence (D) Both 1 and 2

46. Taq polymerase enzyme is used in

(A) restriction mapping (B) gene cloning
(C) PCR (D) All of these

47. Which of the following is a method of gene transfer?

(A) Microinjection (B) Particle gun (C) Electroporation (D) All of these

KVPY_SX_BOTANY # 131
58. VNTRs are
(A) Variable number of tendem repeats
(B) Very narrow tandem repeats
(C) Variable noncistronin transposon repeats
(D) Valuable non-cistronic transposonic regions

49. The enzyme TPA or tissue plasminogen activator is used for

(A) Dissolving blood clots (B) Maintaining plasma content
(C) Clearing turbidity of juices (D) Stimulating thromboplastin production

50. Giant Mouse has been produced through

(A) Tissue culture (B) Gene differentiation (C) Gene manipulation (D) All of the above

51. Hirudin is
(A) A protein produced by Hordeum vulgar, which is rich in lysine
(B) A toxic molecule isolated from Gossypium hirsutum, which reduced fertility
(C) A protein produced from transgenic Brassica napus, which prevents blood clotting
(D) An antibiotic produced by a genetically engineered bacterium Escherichia coli

52. Large scale production of biotechonolgical products involves use of

(A) Bioreactor/fermenter (B) Electrophoresis (C) RFLP (D) PCR

53. Wine and Beer are produced directly by fermentation. Brandy and Whisky require both fermentation and
distillation because
(A) Fermentation is inhibited at an alcohol level of 10–18%
(B) Distillation prolongs storage
(C) Distillation improves quality
(D) Distillation purifies the beverage

54. The process of making temporary/transitory opening in the cell membrane or introduce froeign DNA is
(A) electroporation (B) Micro-injection
(C) Particle gun (D) chemical mediated genetic transformation

55. Genetic diagnosis by DNA testing

(A) Detects only mutant and normal alleles.
(B) Can be done only on eggs or sperms.
(C) involves hybridization to ribosomal RNA
(D) Utilizes restriction enzymes and a polymorphic site

56. Polymerase chain reaction involves use of a DNA polymerase enzyme which is
(A) A terminal transferase (B) Thermolabile
(C) Thromostable (D) Modular enzyme

57. A method used to distinguish DNA of one individual from another is

(A) DNA sequencing (B) cDNA
(C) hybridisation (D) restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP).

58. Restrcition endonucleases were used by Cohen and Boyer’s DNA experiments for
(A) Isolation of cloned bacterial plasmids
(B) Cleaving the bacterial plasmid
(C) isolation of human insulin
(D) both 1 and 2
59. The northern blot technique is used for the detection of
(A) rRNA (B) mRNA (C) tRNA (D) RNA

KVPY_SX_BOTANY # 132
60. The southern blot technique is used for the detection of
(A) DNA (B) RNA (C) Protein (D) RNA

61. Which of the following has been covered under the broad patent category?
(A) Triticum (B) Oryza (C) Pisum sativum (D) Brassica
62. Transfer of DNA bands from an agrose gel to a nitrocellulose or nylonmembrane is referred to as
(A) western transfer (B) Northern transfer (C) eastern transfer (D) gene transfer

63. Recombinant DNA technology can be used to produce quantities of biologically active form which one of the
following products synthesized in E.coli
(A) Luteining hormone (B) Ecdysone (C) Rifamycin (D) Interferon

64. During “gene cloning” which is called as “gene taxi”

(A) Vaccine (B) Plasmid (C) Bacterium (D) Protozoa

65. Kohler and Milstein developed biotechnology for production of

(A) Modern vaccines (B) immobilised enzymes
(C) Monoclonal antibodies (D) Myelomas

66. The transgenic animals are those which have

(A) Foreign DNA in some of their cells (B) Foreign DNA in all of their cells
(C) Foreign RNA in all of their cells (D) Both (A) and (C)

67. On what indian bioresource did Vandana Shiva’s efforts get the patent cancelled
(A) Healing principle of turmeric (B) Anti-diabetes property of Karela
(C) Insecticides from Neem (D) Laxative property of animals

68. The new strain of bacteria produced by biotechnology in alcohol industry is

(A) Escherichia coli (B) Saccharomyces cerevisiae
(C) Bacillus subtilis (D) Pseudomonas putida

69. Important objective of biotechnology in agriculture sector is

(A) To produce pest resistance varieties of plants(B) To increase the nitrogen content
(C) To decrease the seeds number (D) To increase the plants

70. Which country has decided to ‘label’ those GM foods that are found to be ‘safe’
(A) Brazil (B) China (C) japan (D) South Africa
71. Bt is resistant to
(A) Virus (B) Adverse environmental conditions
(C) Bollworm (D) Herbicide

72. Crystals of Bt-toxin produced by some bactria do not kill the bacteria themselves because
(A) Bacteria are resistant to the toxin (B) Toxin is immature
(C) Toxin is inactive (D) Bacteria encloses toxin in a special sac

73. The most common trait that was improved in commercialized crops was
(A) Insect resistance (B) Drought resistance (C) Nutritional quality (D) Productivity

74. Efforts to repeat the cloning of Dolly the sheep have been unsuccessful. The scientists who claim to have
cloned Dolly have been challenged to produce additional evidence that Dolly is really derived from an adult
cell (as originally claimed), rather than a fetal cells which might have contaminated the experiment (as the
sceptics suggest). Which of the following could provide evience that Dolly was created from an adult cell,
rather than a fetal cell.
(A) Dolly’s DNA finger prints
(B) The heterozygosity of random pieces of Dolly’s DNA
(C) The melting point of Dolly’s DNA
(D) The length of Dolly’s telomeres

KVPY_SX_BOTANY # 133
75. The recently discovered antibiotic Griseofulvin is produced by
(A) Streptomyces (B) Pseudomonas (C) Mycobacterium (D) Penicillium
76. Which statement about the “foreign” genetic material in genetically modified (GM) crop plants or animals is
false?
(A) It must be inserted again in each generation
(B) It alters the phenotype of the GM plant or animal
(C) It may be subject to natural selection by weather, pests, and diseases
(D) It may be transferred to related non-crop plants or animals
77. Which statement about genetically modified (GM) foods is false?
(A) Scientists have used genetic modification, in various forms, as a means of improving crop yields, crop
quality, and pest resistance for many years
(B) Genetic modification includes products made by artificial mutagenesis and by non-natural crosses between
unrelated species
(C) A major difficulty in labelling foods as “GM-free” is that it is virtually impossible to measure genetically
modified DNA or protein molecules in most food made from GM crops
(D) The recent decision by McGain foods to stop processing GM potatoes means that they will eventually
use less pesticides to produce the potatoes that are required to make fries
78. The goal of the polymerase chain reaction is to
(A) Speed up protein synthesis for the production new drugs
(B) Create many copies of a DNA sequence which is initially very rare
(C) Create many copies of messenger RNA molecules
(D) Investigate the properties of organisms which normally grow at very high temperatures
79. NaCl is harmful to most crop plants. A scientist at the University of Toronto genetically modified plant so that
it could be grown in dry parts of the world where the available water has a high level of NaCl. This genetically
modified plant crop with the high levels of NaCl by transporting salt into its vacuoles where it accumulates to
abnormally high levels. Which feature would be observed in the genetically modified plant when compared to
a non-modified plant
(A) The leaves in the modified plant are more yellow in colour
(B) The modified plant has salt crystals on the surface of its leaves
(C) The cytosol (the material between the plasma membrane and the vacuole membrane, excluding the
organelles) in the modified plant has a lower osmotic pressure
(D) The cytosol in the modified plant has a higher osmotic pressure
80. Microinjection of desired genes into fertilized eggs results in
(A) Cloned animals (B) Free maritns (C) Transgenic animals (D) recombinant mammals
81. Bacteria genetically engineered to express a gene from a plant will
(A) Synthesize a protein with the same sequence of amino acids as in the plant and, therefore, the protein
will have the same structure and function as in the plant
(B) Synthesize a protein with essentially the same sequence of amino acids as in the plant with differences
relating to different codon wobble rules between prokaryotes and eukaryotes
(C) Not be able to synthesize a protein due to the presence of exon splicing sequences in the DNA sequence
from the plant
(D) Synthesize a protein with the same sequence of amino acids as in the plant but which may or may not
have a different shape or function due to differences in post transcriptional processing
82. Gene therapy for deleterious mutations in blood cells is becoming possible by introducing normal genes into
blood cell precursors in the laboratory and re-injecting these cells into the patient. Which of the following
would not be associated with this kind of gene therapy research
(A) Attempting to place the normal gene in a vector which will help the gene integrate into a chromosome
(B) Utilising virus vectors which have some of their own genes removed
(C) Utilising a suitably modified HIV virus
(D) Preventing transmission of the mutation to the next generation
(E) Finding gene transfer methods for treating other gentic disorders, such as cystic fibrosis

KVPY_SX_BOTANY # 134
 KVPY PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS
1. The restriction endonuclease EcoR-I recognises and cleaves DNA sequence as shown below -
[KVPY_2012_SB]
5’ – G A A T T C – 3’
3’ – C T T A A G – 5’
What is the probable number of cleavage sites that can occur in a 10 kb long random DNA sequence?
(A) 10 (B) 2 (C) 100 (D) 50

2. Eco RI and Rsa I restriction endonucleases require 6 bp and 4 bp sequences respectively for cleavage. In a
10 kb DNA fragment how many probable cleavage sites are present for these enzymes [KVPY_2013_SB]
(A) 0 Eco RI and 10 Rsa I (B) 1 Eco RI and 29 Rsa I
(C) 4 Eco RI and 69 Rsa I (D) 2 Eco RI and 39 Rsa I

3. A scientist has cloned an 8 Kb fragment of a mouse gene into the Eco RI site of a vector of 6 Kb size. The
cloned DNA has no other Eco RI site within. Digestions of the cloned DNA is shown below.

Which one of the following sets of DNA fragments generated by digestion with both Eco RI and Bam HI as
shown in (iii) is from the gene? [KVPY_2013_SB]
(A) 1 Kb and 4 Kb (B) 1 Kb and 2.5 Kb (C) 1 Kb and 3 Kb (D) 1 Kb and 3.5 Kb

4. A circular plasmid of 10,000 base pairs (bp) is digested with two restriction enzymes,A and B, to produce a
3000 bp and a 2000 bp bands when visualised on an agarose gel. when digested with one enzyme at a
time,only one band is visible at 5000 bp. If the first site for enzyme A(A1) is present at the 100th base, the
order in which the remaining sites(A2,B1 and B2) are present is : [KVPY_2014_SB]
(A) 3100,5100,8100 (B) 8100,3100,5100 (C) 5100,3100,8100 (D) 8100,5100,3100

5. Restriction endonucleases are enzymes that are used by biotechnologists to [KVPY 2015 SA] [1 Mark]
(A) cut DNA at specific base sequences (B) join fragments of DNA
(C) digest DNA from the 3’ end (D) digest DNA from the 5’ end

6. Genomic DNA is digested with Alu I, a restriction enzyme which is a four base-pair cutter. What is the
frequency with which it will cut the DNA assuming a random distribution of bases in the genome:
[KVPY 2015 SA] [2 Marks]
(A) 1/4 (B) 1/24 (C) 1/256 (D) 1/1296

7. In biotechnology application, a selectable marker is incorporated in a plasmid

[KVPY 2015 SX] [1 Mark]
(A) to increase its copy number
(B) to increase the transformation efficiency
(C) to eliminate the non transformants
(D) to increase the expression of the gene of interest

KVPY_SX_BOTANY # 135
8. Consider the linear double stranded DND shown below. The restriction enzyme sites and the lengths demar-
cated are shown. This DNA is completely digested with both EcoRI and BamHI r e s t r i c t i o n
enzymes. If the Product is analyzed by gel electrophoresis, how many distinct bands would be observed?
[KVPY 2015 SX] [2 Marks]
1 kb 3 kb 5 kb 3 kb

Eco RI Bam HI Eco RI

(A) 5 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4

9. How many bands are seen when immunoglobulin G molecules analysed on a sodium dodecyl sulphate
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS_PAGE) under reducing conditions?
[KVPY 2015 SX] [2 Marks]
(A) 6 (B) 1 (C) 2 (D) 4

EXERCISE
1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4 (A) 5 (A)
6 (C) 7 (B) 8 (A) 9 (C) 10 (C)
11 (D) 12 (C) 13 (D) 14 (B) 15 (D)
16 (A) 17 (C) 18 (B) 19 (C) 20 (B)
21 (A) 22 (D) 23 (C) 24 (B) 25 (C)
26 (B) 27 (C) 28 (A) 29 (C) 30 (D)
31 (C) 32 (C) 33 (C) 34 (C) 35 (B)
36 (C) 37 (D) 38 (B) 39 (2) 40 (C)
41 (C) 42 (B) 43 (B) 44 (B) 45 (C)
46 (C) 47 (D) 48 (A) 49 (A) 50 (C)
51 (C) 52 (A) 53 (A) 54 (A) 55 (B)
56 (C) 57 (D) 58 (D) 59 (D) 60 (A)
61 (D) 62 (D) 63 (D) 64 (B) 65 (C)
66 (B) 67 (C) 68 (C) 69 (A) 70 (C)
71 (C) 72 (C) 73 (A) 74 (D) 75 (D)
76 (A) 77 (D) 78 (B) 79 (D) 80 (C)
81 (A) 82 (D)

KVPY PREVIOUS YEAR QUESTIONS

1. (B) 2. (D) 3. (A,C) 4. (C) 5. (A)

6. (C) 7. (C) 8. (C) 9. (D)

KVPY_SX_BOTANY # 136