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The Living World
(i) Tools of Biology: (Dissecting microscope, compound microscope, electron microscope);methods of scientific research, our place in the universe, laws that govern universe and life; levels of organization, cause and effect relationship.
(ii) Being alive: what does it mean? Life as an expression of energy; steady state and homeostasis; reproduction and survival, adaptations, ageing, death and its significance.
Diversity of Life
(i) Taxonomy and phylogeny, shortcoming of two-kingdom classification, five-kingdom classification: general idea of Monera, Protista, Plantae, Fungi and Animalia.
(ii) Kingdom Monera: Bacteria - forms of bacteria, structure of a bacterial cell, reproduction, gram +ve and gram –ve bacteria, economic importance; cyanobacteria: characteristic features; archaebacteria: methanogens, halophiles and thermoacidophils.
(iii) Kingdom Protista: structure of a typical photosynthetic protist, locomotion, reproduction; photosynthetic protists: general characters of Dinoflagellates and Diatoms, structure of euglena; protozoan protists: zooflagellate (amoeba) , sporozoan (plasmodium) and ciliate (paramoecium) .
(iv) Kingdom Fungi: zygomycetes, ascomycetes, basidomycetes - general characteristics. Brief idea of lichens and mycorrhizae.
(v) Plant kingdom: Algae – Classification – Chlorophyceae, Phaeophyceae, Rhodophyceae
-main characteristics and examples; structure and life cycle of Spirogyra; Bryophyta: morphology and life cycle of Funaria with special reference to alternation of generations; Pteridophyta – morphology and life cycle of Fern; Gymnosperms: morphology and life cycle of Pinus; Angiosperms – brief idea of Habit (herbs, shrubs and trees), life span (annuals, biennials and perennials) , adaptations to environment (mesophytes, hydrophytes and xerophytes) ; special modes of nutrition (parasites, saprophytes and insectivorous plants).
(vi)Animal Kingdom: animal construction – body plan, symmetry, coelom, development, segmentation; distinguishing characters of Porifera, Coelenterata, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, Chordata – sub phylum Hermichordata, Urochordata and Cephalochordata and Vertebrata (class - pisces, amphibia, reptilia, aves and mammalia) .
Organism and Environment
(i) Species and Population: concept of species, interaction between members of a species (cooperative, communication and competition) .
(ii) Biotic community: intraspecific and interspecific relationship, commensalism, predation, scavenging, parasitism, symbiosis, biotic stability and biotic succession.
(iii) Ecosystem: biotic and abiotic components, food chain, trophic levels, food web, ecological pyramids, major ecosystems, man made ecosystem – agro ecosystem.
(iv)Pollution: Non-degradable and biodegradable pollutants, major types of pollution and their effect.
Unit of Life
(i) Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cell: structure and differences.
(ii) Small biomolecules: carbohydrates - classification, functions of monosaccharides and oligosaccharides; lipids - classification, properties of fats and oils, functions; amino acids: essential and nonessential amino acids, functions, peptide bond; nucleotides and their chemistry, cellular location and function.
(iii) Cellular macromolecules: polysaccharides (starch, glycogen, cellulose, mucopolysaccharides) ; proteins: simple (albumins, histones, globulins, keratins, collagen and elastin) and conjugated (chromoprotein, glycoprotein, phosphoprotein, metalloprotein, lipoprotein and nucleoprotein); nucleic acids: structure of DNA and RNA, types of RNA.
(iv) Enzymes: molecular structure, general properties, classification, mechanism of enzyme action, allosteric modulation, factors affecting enzyme activity.
(v) Cell membranes: unit membrane concept, fluid mosaic model, membrane transport, passive and active transport, exocytosis and endocytosis.
(vi) Structural organisation of the cell: cell wall, nucleus, mitochondria, plastids, endoplasmic reticulum, golgi complex, lysosomes, ribosomes, microfilaments, microtubules, cilia and flagella, vacuoles and cell inclusions.
(vii) Cellular respiration: aerobic and anaerobic, fermentation, glycolysis, Kreb's cycle, oxidative phosphorylation and respiratory quotient. Amphibolic pathway.
Continuity of Life
(i) Cell reproduction: cell cycle, mitosis and meiosis. Permanent slides should be shown of different stages and students should be able to identify and write the characteristics of the identified stage.
(ii) Fundamentals of genetics: concept of alleles, dominant and recessive, phenotype and genotype, homozygous and heterozygous, mono and dihybrid crosses.
(iii) Mendel's experiments with peas, Mendel's laws of inheritance, incomplete dominance, co-dominance, multiplealleles.
(iv) Genes: packaging of hereditary material in prokaryotes, bacterial chromosome; plasmid and eukaryote chromosomes; gene interaction, cytoplasmic inheritance, viral genes, complimentary genes linkage maps, sex determination and sex linkage; gene manipulation, genetic code.
(v) Mutation: chromosomal aberrations, gene mutations, somatic and heritable mutations, spontaneous and induced mutations, role of mutations in speciation.
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