Biotechnology and Its application
1. Genetically engineered bacteria have been successfully used in the commercial production of
(a) human insulin
(b) testosterone
(c) thyroxine
(d) melatonin
2. What is true for monoclonal antibodies?
(a) These antibodies obtained from one parent and for one antigen
(b) These antibodies obtained from parent and for two antigen
(c) These antibodies obtained from one parent and for many antigen
(d) These antibodies obtained from many parents and for many antigens
3. Maximum application of animal cell culture technology today is in the production of
(a) edible proteins
(b) insulin
(c) interferons
(d) vaccines
4. ELISA is used to detect viruses where the key reagent is
(a) RNase
(b) alkaline phosphatase
(c) catalase
(d) DNA probe
5. Golden rice is a transgenic crop of the future with the following improved trait:
(a) insect resistance
(b) high lysine (essential amino acid) content
(c) high protein content
(d) high vitamin-A content
6. The name of Norman Borlaug is associated with:
(a) white revolution
(b) green revolution
(c) yellow revolution
(d) blue revolution
7. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) strains have been used for designing novel:
(a) Biofertilizers
(b) Bio-metallurgical techniques
(c) Bio-mineralization processes
(d) Bioinsecticidal plants
8. A trangenic food crop‘which may help in solving the problem of night blindness in developing countries is
(a) FlavrSavr tomatoes
(b) Starlink maize
(c) Bt Soybean
(d) Golden rice
9. Main objective of production/use of herbicide resistant GM crops is to
(a) eliminate weeds from the field without the use of manual labour
(b) eliminate weeds from the field without the use of herbicides
(c) encourage eco-friendly herbicides
(d) reduce herbicide accumulation in food articles for health safety
10. Which one of the following is commonly used in transfer of foreign DNA into crop plants?
(a) Meloidogyneincognita
(b) Agrobacterium tumefaciens
(c) Penicilliumexpansum
(d) Trichoderma harzianum
11. What is true about Bt toxin?
(a) Bt protein exists as active toxin in the Bacillus
(b) The activated toxin enters the ovaries of the pest to sterilise it and thus prevent its multiplication.
(c) The concerned Bacillus has antitoxins.
(d) The inactive protoxin gets converted into active form in the insect gut.
12. Transgenic plants are the ones:
(a) generated by introducing foreign DNA into a cell and regenerating a plant from that cell.
(b) produced after protoplast fusion in artificial medium.
(c) grown in artificial medium after hybridization in the field.
(d) produced by a somatic embryo in artificial medium.
13. The genetically-modified (GM) brinjal in India has been developed for:
(a) insect-resistance
(b) enhancing shelf life
(c) enhancing mineral content
(d) drought-resistance
14. Genetic engineering has been successfully used for producing:
(a) transgenic mice for testing safety of polio vaccine before use in humans
(b) transgenic models for studying new treatments for certain cardiac diseases
(c) transgenic cow – rosie which produces high fat milk for making ghee
(d) animals like bulls for farm work as they have super power
15. Some of the characteristics of Bt cotton are:
(a) long fibre and resistance to aphids
(b) medium yield, long fibre and resistance to beetle pests
(c) high yield and production of toxic protein crystals which kill dipteran pests
(d) high yield and resistance to bollworms
16. The most common substrate used in distilleries for the production of ethanol is
(a) corn meal
(b) soya meal
(c) ground gram
(d) molasses
17. Maximum number of existing transgenic animals is of:
(a) fish
(b) mice
(c) cow
(d) pig
18. Continuous addition of sugars in ‗fed batch‘ fermentation is done to:
(a) produce methane
(b) obtain antibiotics
(c) purify enzymes
(d) degrade sewage
19. Silencing of mRNA has been used in producing transgenic plants resistant to:
(a) bollworms
(b) nematodes
(c) white rusts
(d) bacterial blights
20. Consider the following statements (A-D) about organic farming: (A) Utilizes genetically modified crops like Bt cotton (B) Uses only naturally produced inputs like compost (C) Does not use pesticides and urea (D) Produces vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals Which of the above statements are correct?
(a) (B), (C) and (D)
(b) (C) and (D) only
(c) (B) and (C) only
(d) (A) and (B) only
21. In history of biology, human genome project led to the development of:
(a) biotechnology
(b) biomonitoring
(c) bioinformatics
(d) biosystematics
22. Which one of the following techniques made it possible to genetically engineer living organism?
(a) Recombinant DNA techniques
(b) X-ray diffraction
(c) Heavier isotope labelling
(d) Hybridization
23. Read the following four statements (A-D) about certain mistakes in two of them (A) The first transgenic buffalo, Rosie produced milk which was human alphalactal albumin enriched. (B) Restriction enzymes are used in isolation of DNA from other macro molecules. (C) Downstream processing isone of the steps of R-DNA technology.(D) Disarmed pathogen vectors are alsoused in transfer of R-DNA into the host.Which are the two statements havingmistakes?
(a) Statement (B) and (C)
(b) Statement (C) and (D)
(c) Statement (A) and (C)
(d) Statement (A) and (B)
24. Consumption of which one of the following foods can prevent the kind of blindness associated with vitamin ‗A‘ deficiency?
(a) ‗FlaverSavr‘ tomato
(b) Canolla
(c) Golden rice
(d) Bt-Brinjal
25. Tobacco plants resistant to a nematode have been developed by the introduction of DNA that produced (in the host cells)
(a) both sense and anti-sense RNA
(b) a particular hormone
(c) an antifeedant
(d) a toxic protein
26. The first clinical gene therapy was given for treating
(a) chicken pox
(b) diabetes mellitus
(c) rheumatoid arthritis
(d) adenosine deaminase deficiency
27. Which of the following Bt crops is being grown in India by the farmers?
(a) Cotton
(b) Brinjal
(c) Soyabean
(d) Maize
28. Which one of the following vectors is used to replace the defective gene in gene therapy?
(a) Tiplasmid
(b) Adenovirus
(c) Cosmid
(d) Ri plasmid
29. During the process of isolation of DNA, chilled ethanol is added to
(a) Remove proteins such as histones
(b) Precipitate DNA
(c) Break open the cell to release DNA
(d) Facilitate action of restriction enzymes
30. RNA interference involves
(a) Synthesis of mRNA from DNA
(b) Synthesis of cDNA from RNA using reverse transcriptase
(c) Silencing of specific mRNA due to complementary RNA
(d) Interference of RNA in synthesis of DNA
31.The two polypeptides of human insulin are linked together by
(a) hydrogen bonds
(b) covalent bond
(c)disulphide bridges
(d) phosphodiester bond
32. A tumour inducing plasmid widely used in the production of transgenic plant is that of
(a) Staphylococcus aureus
(b) Agrobacterium tumefaciens
(c) Escherichia coli
(d) Bacillus thuringiensis
33. Which of the following is responsible for causing disease in plants?
(a) virus
(b) pesticide
(c) Herbicide
(d) all the above
34. Golden rice is a genetically modified crop plant where the incorporated gene is meant for biosynthesis of
(a) vitamin B
(b) omega 3
(c) vitamin A
(d) vitamin C
35. Select the correct statement(s)-
(1) IARI has released a mustard variety rich in vitamin C.
(2) Pusa Sawani variety of Okra is resistant to aphids.
(3) Hairiness of leaves provides resistance to insect pests.
(4) Agriculture accounts for approximately 33% of India’s GDP and employs nearly 62% of the population.
(a) (1), (3) and (4)
(b) (1) and (2)
(c) (2) and (3)
(d) None of these
36. In which therapy, vectors are used to introduce desired gene into the body of patients?
(a) In vivo, gene therapy
(b) Germ line therapy
(c) Ex vivo gene therapy
(d) Foreign gene therapy
37. Some of the characteristics of Bt cotton are
(a) long fibre and resistance to aphids
(b) medium yield, long fibre and resistance to beetle pests
(c) high yield and production of toxic protein crystals which kill dipteran pests
(d) high yield and resistance to bollworms.
38. Organisms which can be used to gain commercial benefits are called –
(a) Beneficial resources
(b) Bio resources
(c) Financial resources
(d) Biological resources
39.In Bt cotton, the Bt toxin present in plant tissue as protoxin is converted into active toxin due to
(a) alkaline pH of the insect gut
(b) acidic pH of the insect gut
(c) action of gut microorganisms
(d) presence of conversion factors in insect gut
40. Which technology facilitates the production of novel DNA molecule by combining sequences from DNA from two different organisms ?
(a) gene therapy
(b) Recombinant DNA technology
(c) Polymerase chain reaction
(d) germ line gene therapy
41. The crops engineered for glyphosate are resistant/tolerant to
(a) fungi
(b) insects
(c) herbicides
(d) bacteria.
42. Which was the first product contributed to human kind by science of Biotechnology in early 1972
(a) somatotropin
(b) Insulin
(c) cytokines
(d) erythropoietin
43. Main objective of production/use of herbicide resistant GM crops is to
(a) eliminate weeds from the field without the use of manual labour
(b) eliminate weeds from the field without the use of herbicides
(c) encourage ecofriendly herbicides
(d) reduce herbicide accumulation in food articles for health safety
44. Bio augmentation is …..
(a) the addition of commercially prepared bacterial strain
(b) Production of fertilizers by using bacteria
(c) the metals are deposited as insoluble oxides and sulphides by activities of bacteria
(d) removal of pests
45. Which one of the following vectors is used to replace the defective gene in gene therapy?
(a) Ri plasmid
(b) Ti plasmid
(c) Adenovirus
(d) Cosmid
46.What is it that forms the basis of DNA fingerprinting?
(a) The relative amount of DNA in the ridges and grooves of the fingerprints
(b) The relative proportions of purines and pyrimidines in DNA
(c) The relative difference in the DNA occurrence in blood, skin and saliva.
(d) Satellite DNA occurring as highly repeated short DNA segments
47. Which variety of rice was patented by a U.S. company even though the highest number of varieties of this rice is found in India ?
(a) Basmati
(b) Lerma Roja
(c) Sharbati Sonara
(d) Co-667
48. An improved variety of transgenic basmati rice
(a) does not require chemical fertilizers and growth hormones
(b) gives high yield and is rich in vitamin A
(c) is completely resistant to all insect pests and diseases of paddy
(d) gives high yield but has no characteristic aroma.
49. Read the following four statements (AD) about certain mistakes in two of them.
(A) The first transgenic buffalo, Rosie produced milk which was human alphalactalbumin enriched.
(B) Restriction enzymes are used in isolation of DNA from other macromolecules.
(C) Downstream processing is one of the steps of rDNA technology.
(D) Disarmed pathogen vectors are also used in transfer of rDNA into the host.
Which of the two statements have mistakes?
(a) A and C
(b) B and C
(c) C and D
(d) A and B
50. Which one of the following is now being commercially produced by biotechnological procedures?
(a) Nicotine
(b) Insulin
(c) Morphine
(d) Quinine
Solutions :
1.Solution: (a)
Human insulin has 53 amino acids in two polypeptides (A and B) connected by two S – S (disulphide) linkages. In 1983, American company Eli Lilly prepared two DNA sequences corresponding to A and B insulin chains. When introduced in plamids of E.coli, insulin chains were formed. They were extracted and fused to produce humulin (human insulin).
2.Solution: (a)
Monoclonal antibodies are identical molecules specific for one type of antigen. These are obtained by injecting the target antigen into a rat or mouse. Sometimes later, the spleen cells producing antibodies are isolated and fused with myeloma cells to produce monoclonal antibodies.
3.Solution: (d)
4.Solution: (b)
ELISA test is a technique which can detect any amount of an antibody or antigen with the help of an enzyme. The commonly used enzymes are alkaline phosphatase and peroxidase.
5.Solution: (d)
Golden rice is a transgenic crop of the future with high Vit. A content. Millions of people suffer from Vit. A deficiency which leads to vision impairment. Transgenic rice has been developed which is capable of synthesizing beta carotene, the precursor of Vitamin A. The rice variety is now being crossed into adapted varieties with field tests possible in an year or two.
6.Solution: (b)
The term Green revolution refers to the very substantial increase in yield obtained by breeding high yielding varieties of crops, under intensive application of fertilizers, irrigation and pesticides. The world wide increase, in productivity has come to be known as the ‗Green Revolution‘ for which Dr. Borlaug won the Noble Peace Prize in 1970.
7.Solution: (d)
Bt cotton, a transgenic crop variety has been introduced in India. The Bt cotton variety contains a foreign gene obtained from Bacillus thuringiensis. This bacterial gene protects cotton from the ball worm, a major pest of cotton.
8. Solution: (d)
Golden rice is a transgenic food crop which ma help in solving the problem of night blindness in developing countries. Golden rice or miracle rice is rich in vitamin A or β- carotene and iron and decaffeinated coffee are also valuable achievements of gene transfer technology.
9. Solution: (d)
Main objective of production/use of herbicide resistant GM crops is to reduce herbicide accumulation in food articles for health safety. GM plants has been useful in many ways. Genetic modifications has made crops more tolerant to abiotic stresses, reduced reliance on chemical pesticides, enhanced nutritional value of food.
10.Solution: (b)
Agrobacterium tumefaciens is the causal agent of crown gall disease (the formation of tumours) in over 140 species of dicot. This disease caused by a DNA plasmid (Ti plasmid) carried by bacterium and transferred to the plant cells. Ti plasmid has widely used in plant engineering as a
vector in order to inject gene in host plant to form transgenic plant.
11.Solution: (d)
About Bt toxin, it is true, that the inactive protoxin gets converted into active form in the insect gut there are several advantages in expressing Bt toxins in transgenic Bt crops. The level of toxin expression can be very high, thus delivering sufficient dosage to the pest. The toxin expression is contained within the plant system and hence only those insects that feed on the crop perish. The toxin expression can be modulated iotechnology
and Its Applications 357 by using tissuespecific promoters and replaces the use of synthetic pesticides in the environment.
12.Solution: (a)
Transgenic plants are the ones generated by introducing foreign DNA into a cell and regenerating a plant from that cell.
13.Solution: (a)
The genetically modified brinjal in India has been developed for insect resistance. Bt brinjal is a transgenic brinjal that is developed by inserting a crystal gene from the Bacillus thuringiensis into the brinjal‘s genome. This process of insertion is accomplished using Agrobacterium
mediated recombination.
14.Solution: (a)
Genetic engineering has been successfully used for producing transgenic mice. Many transgenic mice are designed to increase our understanding of how genes contribute to development of diseases. Transgenic mice are being developed for use in testing the safety of vaccine before they are used in human beings. For example transgenic mice are being used to test the safety of polio vaccine.
15.Solution: (d)
Bt toxin genes were isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis and incorporated into cotton plant to form a genetically modified crop called Bt cotton. Bt cotton has high yield and resistance to bollworms.
16.Solution: (d)
Molasses are commonly used in distillaries for the production of ethanol. The molasses is diluted to a mash containing 10-20 wt% of sugar. By the fermentation system of molasses ethanol can be produced.
17.Solution: (b)
In the world maximum number of existing transgenic animals is mice.
18.Solution: (c)
A fed batch is a biotechnological batch process which is based on feeding of a growth limiting nutrient substrate to culture. It is done for purifying enzymes.
19.Solution: (b)
In this technique nematode specific genes are introduced in the host plant in such a way that it produces both sense and antisense RNA. The two RNA‘s being complementary to each other from a double stranded RNA (dsRNA) which is also called interfering RNA responsible for initiating
RNA interference (RNA i). This (dsRNA) bind to and prevent translation of specific mRNA of nematode (gene silencing). Thus
transgenic plants based on RNAi technology are resistant to nematode.
20.Solution: (c)
Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on the techniques like crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control.
21.Solution: (c)
Common activities in bioinformatics include mapping and analysing DNA and protein sequences, aligning different DNA etc are the part of human genome project.
22.Solution: (a)
Recombinant DNA technology is the process joining together two DNA molecules from two different species that are inserted into a host organism to produce new genetic combination.
23.Solution: (d)
Transgenic Rosie is actually cow. Restriction enzymes cut the DNA at specific sites.
24.Solution: (c)
Golden rice is vitamin A rich variety developed by rDNA technology and used in the treatment of vitamin A deficiency.
25.Solution: (a)
RNA interference technique, sense & antisense RNA fused to form dsRNA that silent the expression of m- RNA of nematode. RNA interference is a novel strategy adopted to prevent infestation of nematode Meloidegyneincognitia in roots of tobacco plants.
26.Solution: (d)
Gene therapy is an experimental technique that uses genes to treat or prevent disease. The first clinical gene therapy was given for treating adenosine deaminase deficiency. A four-year old girl became the first gene therapy patient on September 14, 1990 at the NIH Clinical Center. Adenosine deaminase deficiency, also called ADA deficiency or ADASCID is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder that causes
immunodeficiency. ADA deficiency is due to a lack of the enzyme adenosine deaminase.
27.Solution: (a)
Bt cotton is being grown in India by the farmers. Bt cotton is pest resistant plant which could decreased the pesticides used. Bt toxin is produced by a bacterium Bacillus thusringiensis (Bt for short). Bt toxin gene has been cloned from the bacteria and been expressed in plants to provide resistance to insects without the need for insecticides.
28.Solution: (b)
Adenovirus is non-enveloped dsDNA virus which cause respiratory diseases. Adenovirus is used as a vehicle to administer targeted therapy in the form of recombinant DNA or protein. Specific modifications on fibre proteins are used to target adenovirus to certain cell types, a major effort is made to limit hepatotoxicity and prevent multiple organ failure.
29.Solution: (b)
Ethanol is non-polar molecule while DNA is a polar molecule, it has a net negative charge due to the phosphate groups attached to it. When DNA is placed into a solution of 100% ethanol, it becomes insoluble and precipitates out of solution.
30. Solution: (c)
RNAi is a method of cellular defense in all eukaryotes. It is a system within living cells that helps to control the activity of specific
genes. This method involves silencing of mRNA due to complementary double stranded RNA that prevents translation of target gene or mRNA [silencing]. Source of ds RNA is retrovirus (having RNA genome) or transposons (mobile genetic material).
31.(c) The insulin molecule consists of two peptide chains, the A-chain and the B-chain, linked by two disulfide bonds
32.(b) Ti plasmid is found extragenomically in Agrobacterium tumefaciens which possesses T-DNA that is responsible for causing tumour in host plant.
33.(a) virus causing disease in plants.
34.(c) The new genetically modified rice (Oryza sativa) type is golden rice. It is produced for the synthesis of vitamin A, to biosynthesize beta – carotene. It has a high content of vitamin A
35.(a) 1 , 3, and 4
36. (a) In vivo gene therapy is a direct method of inserting the genetic material into the targeted tissue, and transduction takes place within the patient’s own cells. In vivo gene therapy means that therapy is administered directly the patient. The targeted cells remain in the body of the patient. With ex vivo gene/cell therapy the targeted cells are removed from the patient and gene therapy is administered to the cells in vitro before they are returned to the patient’s body.
37.(d) Bt toxin genes were isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis and incorporated into cotton plant. The genetically modified crop is called Bt cotton. Bt cotton has the following useful characteristics : pest resistance, herbicide tolerance, high yield and resistance to boll worm infestation.
38(b) bio resource
39.(c) Soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis produces proteins that kill certain insects like lepidopterans (tobacco budworm, armyworm), coleopterans (beetles) and dipterans (flies, mosquitoes). B. thuringiensis forms some protein crystals. These crystals contain a toxic insecticidal protein. This toxin does not kill the Bacillus (bacterium) because it exists as inactive protoxins in them. But, once an insect ingests it, it is converted into an active form of toxin due to the alkaline pH of the alimentary canal. The activated toxin binds to the surface of midgut epithelial cells and create pores that cause swelling and lysis and finally cause death of the insect.
40.(b) Recombinant DNA is the method of joining two or more DNA molecules to create a hybrid. The technology is made possible by two types of enzymes, restriction endonucleases and ligase. A restriction endonuclease recognizes a specific sequence of DNA and cuts within, or close to, that sequence.
41.(c) Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. It is an organophosphorus compound, specifically a phosphonate, which acts by inhibiting the plant enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase. It is used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with crops
42.(a) Identification of the biochemical structure of Growth Hormone or somatotropin in 1972 became the catalyst for the development of recombinant DNA-derived human GH, the gene for which was cloned for the first time in 1979.
43.(d) The main objective of production/use of herbicide resistant Genetically Modified (GM) crops is to reduce herbicide accumulation in food articles for health safety.
44.(a) Bioaugmentation is the practice of adding cultured microorganisms into the subsurface for the purpose of biodegrading specific soil and groundwater contaminants.it is the addition of commercially prepared bacterial strain.
45.(c) They are used for gene therapy and as vaccines to express foreign antigens. Adenovirus vectors can be replication-defective; certain essential viral genes are deleted and replaced by a cassette that expresses a foreign therapeutic gene.
46.(d) DNA fingerprint is individual-specific DNA identification which is made possible by the finding that no two people are likely to have the same of copies of repetitive DNA sequences of regions. The chromosomes of every human cells contains short, highly repeated DNA sequence (15 nucleotide) called minisatelite scattered throughout.
47.(a) basmati
48.(b) gives high yield and is rich in vitamin A
49.(d) the first transgenic cow, Rosie, produced human protein enriched milk. In order to cut the DNA with restriction enzymes, it needs to be in pure form, free from other macromolecules. Deoxyribo nuclease is not used in this process as this enzyme causes the lysis of DNA molecules.
50.(b) insulin
