UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
B.Sc. DEGREE COURSE IN MICROBIOLOGY
SEMESTER SYSTEM WITH CREDITS
(Effective from the Academic Year 2003-2004)

SYLLABUS

Semester V - Paper V - MCC-501 - Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering

Duration of Examination: 3 hrs
Max Marks: 100
Credits: 4

Unit I :

History of biology, model systems; concepts of molecular biology, Early history of genetic engineering concepts, ethical issues.

Unit II :

Structure of biological macromolecules. Proteins, lipids and carbohydrates, nucleic acids, chemical structure of bases, phosphodiester bond, hydrogen bond. Higher order structure, proteins, amino acid structure, folding of proteins, proteins with sub units, enzyme. Function of macromolecules: Early observation on the mechanism of heredity, DNA as genetic material, basic mechanism of replication, enzymes involved in replication, enzymes involved in transcription mechanism, translation, genetic code, regulation of gene expression, transcription, translation and control of expression in microbes.

Unit III :

DNA repair and restriction, types of repair systems, restriction modification systems, types of restriction enzymes, properties and uses, methylation. Biology of plasmids. Bacterihages, lytic vs lysogeñic phages, single stranded DNA phages, M13, restriction modification systems, restriction enzymes. Plasmid and phage vectors, restriction and ligation of vector and passenger DNA, transformation of host cells, selection vs screening of recombinant colonies, analysis of recombinant clones, DNA sequencing, protein separation and identification methods.