UPHESC Assistant Professor Genetics & Plant Breeding PYQs

Concept: Ranjit Singh (b. 1780, Gujranwala) was the son of Maha Singh, chief of the Sukerchakia misl.

1. He united the 12 misls and took Lahore in 1799.
2. Phulkian misl gave the princely houses of Patiala, Nabha, Jind; Ahluwalia misl – Kapurthala.

Short trick: Ranjit Singh = Sukerchakia.

Concept: The Indian Councils Act, 1909 is called the Morley–Minto Reforms (John Morley – Secretary of State; Lord Minto – Viceroy).

1. It introduced separate electorates for Muslims.
2. 1919 Act = Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms (dyarchy).

Short trick: 1909 = Morley–Minto; 1919 = Mont–Ford.

Concept: The Deccan Education Society (Pune, 1884) was founded by Bal Gangadhar Tilak with G. G. Agarkar, Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, M. B. Namjoshi and others.

1. It started Fergusson College (1885).
2. Gokhale joined it later (1886) as a life member – not a founder.

Short trick: Tilak–Agarkar–Chiplunkar → Deccan Education Society.

Concept: 'The Indian Struggle' (1920–1934, published 1935 in London) was written by Subhas Chandra Bose.

1. Nehru: Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History.
2. Gandhi: Hind Swaraj, My Experiments with Truth.

Short trick: Bose → The Indian Struggle; also 'An Indian Pilgrim'.

Concept: Meghalaya's hills run west→east as Garo Hills, Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills; Nagaland lies further east.

1. Garo – western Meghalaya.
2. Khasi – central Meghalaya.
3. Jaintia – eastern Meghalaya.
4. Naga – Nagaland, east of these.

Short trick: Meghalaya W→E: G-K-J, then Naga.

Concept: Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary is in Mandsaur–Neemuch districts of Madhya Pradesh (on the Chambal), not Rajasthan.

1. Dampa Tiger Reserve – Mizoram ✓
2. Valmiki Tiger Reserve – West Champaran, Bihar ✓
3. Rohla National Park – Kullu, Himachal Pradesh ✓
4. Gandhi Sagar is now also India's second cheetah home (2025).

Short trick: Gandhi Sagar dam/sanctuary = MP (Chambal).

Concept: Article 110(3): if a question arises whether a Bill is a Money Bill, the decision of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is final.

1. The Speaker certifies it before it goes to Rajya Sabha (Art. 110(4)).
2. Money Bills can be introduced only in Lok Sabha, with the President's recommendation.

Short trick: Money Bill → Speaker's certificate (Art. 110).

Concept: In 1922 Mahatma Gandhi wrote that Swaraj would not be a gift of the British Parliament but would come through the declaration of India's full self-expression via an Act framed by representatives freely elected by the people.

1. Motilal Nehru's Nehru Report came later (1928).
2. M. N. Roy (1934) first proposed a Constituent Assembly idea formally; INC adopted it in 1935.

Short trick: 1922 Gandhi → 'freely chosen representatives' idea.

Concept: Fundamental Duties are in Part IV-A (Article 51A), added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976 – not Part VI-A.

1. Part II – Citizenship (Art. 5–11) ✓
2. Part III – Fundamental Rights (Art. 12–35) ✓
3. Part VIII – Union Territories (Art. 239–242) ✓

Short trick: Duties follow Directive Principles: Part IV → IV-A.

Concept: India is a founder member of the IMF; it joined on 27 December 1945 when the Bretton Woods Articles came into force.

1. IMF and World Bank (IBRD) were created at Bretton Woods, 1944.
2. IMF headquarters: Washington D.C.

Short trick: Bretton Woods 1944 → IMF 1945, India a founder.

Concept: Association and dissociation of the two ribosomal subunits is controlled by Mg²⁺ concentration.

1. High Mg²⁺ (≈10–20 mM) keeps 30S + 50S as 70S (and even forms 100S dimers).
2. Lowering Mg²⁺ (≈1 mM) dissociates 70S → 30S + 50S (80S → 40S + 60S).
3. Mn, Zn, Ca do not play this structural role.

Short trick: Magnesium = 'glue' of ribosome subunits.

Concept: The 'mur' CMS was produced by Hinata and Konno (1979) by repeated backcrossing that placed the B. campestris (B. rapa) nucleus into Diplotaxis muralis cytoplasm.

1. Other alien CMS sources in Brassica: Ogura (Raphanus sativus), tour (B. tournefortii), Moricandia arvensis, Erucastrum canariense.
2. Polima and nap CMS are native to B. napus.

Short trick: mur CMS = Diplotaxis muralis cytoplasm + campestris nucleus (Hinata & Konno).

Concept: Synthesis of DNA on an RNA template by reverse transcriptase (Temin and Baltimore, 1970) is reverse transcription – seen in retroviruses such as HIV.

1. Transcription: DNA → RNA.
2. Translation: mRNA → protein.
3. Central dogma: DNA → RNA → protein (the normal flow).

Short trick: RNA → DNA = Reverse (Temin–Baltimore).

Concept: Robert W. Holley (1965) sequenced yeast alanine-tRNA and proposed the two-dimensional clover-leaf model.

1. Holley, Khorana and Nirenberg shared the 1968 Nobel Prize (genetic code).
2. Nirenberg – poly-U → phenylalanine; Khorana – synthetic repeating polymers.
3. Benzer – fine structure of rII locus (cistron, muton, recon). The 3-D L-shape was given by Kim/Klug (1974).

Short trick: Holley's clover leaf (2-D); Kim's L-shape (3-D).

Concept: A multiline is a mixture of several pure-line (isogenic) lines of a self-pollinated crop – each plant is homozygous, but the population is heterogeneous (for resistance genes).

1. Single-cross hybrid: heterozygous but homogeneous.
2. Synthetic and composite varieties: heterozygous and heterogeneous (cross-pollinated crops).
3. Multiline concept: Jensen (1952), Borlaug (1953).

Short trick: Multiline = many homozygous lines mixed → homozygous + heterogeneous.

Concept: Mendel's 1865 lecture, published 1866 in the Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Brünn, was titled 'Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden' – Experiments in (on) Plant Hybridization.

1. It was rediscovered in 1900 by de Vries, Correns and von Tschermak.
2. The pea (Pisum sativum) was his material, not his title.

Short trick: Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden = Experiments on Plant Hybrids.

Concept: Prokaryotic RNA polymerase holoenzyme = core enzyme (α₂ββ′ω) + σ factor; σ recognises the promoter (−10 and −35 boxes) and initiates transcription.

1. After initiation σ leaves; the core elongates.
2. Rho (ρ) factor helps in termination.

Short trick: Sigma = Start (promoter recognition); Rho = stop.

Concept: In adventitive (nucellar) embryony, embryos arise directly from somatic nucellus/integument cells – giving polyembryony in Citrus, mango and jamun.

1. Nucellar seedlings are true-to-type, virus-free clones used as rootstocks.
2. Apospory: embryo sac from a somatic (nucellar) cell; recurrent apomixis: unreduced embryo sac from the megaspore mother cell.

Short trick: Citrus–Mango–Jamun polyembryony = nucellar (adventitive) embryos.

Concept: Vivek QPM 9 (VPKAS Almora, 2008) is India's first marker-assisted QPM hybrid; the opaque-2 (o2) gene was transferred into the parents of Vivek Hybrid 9.

1. o2 raises lysine and tryptophan in maize endosperm (Mertz et al., 1964).
2. Rht-1/Norin-10 – dwarfing genes of wheat; Dee-gee-woo-gen – dwarfing gene (sd1) of rice.

Short trick: QPM = opaque-2 maize.

Concept: Co 0238 (Karan-4) is the early-maturing, high-sucrose sugarcane variety bred at Sugarcane Breeding Institute (ICAR), Karnal regional centre, released 2009.

1. It covered most of the cane area of UP, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar – called a 'wonder variety'.
2. 'Co' prefix = Coimbatore (SBI) canes.

Short trick: Co + number = sugarcane (Coimbatore).