GATE BT Syllabus and Marks Distribution

There is no optional subject block in this paper. The syllabus defines what can be tested; it does not offer a choice to replace one subject with another. Leaving a question unanswered earns zero, but it does not reduce the set of topics that may appear.

Biotechnology Unit-wise Syllabus

Engineering Mathematics

• Linear Algebra: Matrices and determinants; Systems of linear equations; Eigen values and Eigen vectors.
• Calculus: Multivariable calculus (limits, continuity, and differentiability); Partial derivatives, maxima and minima; Sequences and series; Test for convergence. Multivariable calculus: Gradient, divergence, and curl (for applications in fluid mechanics, transport processes, etc.).
• Differential Equations: Linear and nonlinear first order ODEs, higher order ODEs with constant coefficients; Cauchy’s and Euler’s equations; Laplace transforms.
• Probability and Statistics: Mean, median, mode and standard deviation; Random variables; Poisson, normal and binomial distributions; Correlation and regression analysis; Bayesian Statistics.
• Numerical Methods: Solution of linear and nonlinear algebraic equations; Integration by trapezoidal and Simpson’s rule; Single step method for differential equations.

General Biology

• Biochemistry: Biomolecules - structure and function; Biological membranes - structure, membrane channels and pumps, molecular motors, action potential and transport processes; Basic concepts and regulation of metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids and nucleic acids; Metabolism: Regulation of metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids, and nucleic acids ; Detailed pathways like glycolysis, citric acid cycle, and fatty acid oxidation; Photosynthesis, respiration and electron transport chain ; Enzymes - Classification, catalytic and regulatory strategies; Enzyme kinetics - Michaelis-Menten equation; Enzyme inhibition - competitive, non- competitive and uncompetitive inhibition.
• Microbiology: History of Microbiology, Bacterial classification and diversity; Bacterial cell wall composition, Gram positive and Gram-negative bacteria, Archea, Methods in microbiology; Microbial growth and nutrition; Operon- Lac, Trp and Ara operon, Nitrogen fixation; Microbial diseases and host-pathogen interactions; Antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance, Two-component system ( TCS), bacterial communication, Viruses - structure and classification.
• Immunology: Primary and Secondary lymphoid organs; Innate immunity and Inflammation; Cytokines and Chemokines; Complement system; Effector responses: Cellular and Humoral Immunity; Molecular basis of Antibody diversity and function; Polyclonal and Monoclonal antibodie s; T -cell and B -cell development; Memory responses; Major Histocompatibility complex (MHC); Antigen processing and presentation; Regulation of immune responses; Immune tolerance; Hypersensitivity; Autoimmunity and Immunodeficiency; Graft vs Host disease; Immunization and vaccines.

Genetics, Cellular and Molecular Biology

• Genetics and Evolutionary Biology: Mendelian inheritance; Gene interaction; Complementation; Linkage, recombination and chromosome mapping; Extra chromosomal inheritance; Microbial genetics - transformation, transduction and conjugation; Bacterial gene mapping; Horizontal gene transfer and transposable elements; Chromosomal variation; Sex Determination; Genetic disorders; Population genetics; Epigenetics; Selection and inheritance; Adaptive and neutral evolution; Genetic drift; Species and speciation.
• Cell Biology: Eukaryotic cell structure; Cell cycle and cell growth control; Cell -cell communication; Cell signalling and signal transduction; Non-cell autonomous cell signalling; Post-translational modifications; Protein trafficking; Cell death and autophagy; Extra-cellular matrix.
• Molecular Biology: Molecular structure of genes and chromosomes; Mutations and mutagenesis; Regulation of gene expression; Nucleic acid - replication, transcription, splicing, translation and their regulatory mechanisms;
• Non-coding and micro RNA; RNA interference; DNA damage and repair

Fundamentals of Biological Engineering

• Bioreaction Engineering: Rate law, zero and first order kinetics; (More advanced kinetic models, including Michaelis-Menten kinetics for enzyme reactions . Inhibition kinetics: Competitive, non -competitive, and uncompetitive inhibition in enzyme catalysis) ; Ideal reactors - batch, mixed flow and plug flow; Enzyme immobilization, diffusion effects - Thiele modulus, effectiveness factor, Damkoehler number; Kinetics of cell growth, substrate utilization and product formation; Structured and unstructured models; Batch, fed -batch and continuous processes; Microbial and enzyme reactors; Optimization and scale up ( Design and operation of microbial reactors (e.g., fermentation reactors) and enzyme reactors (e.g., immobilized enzyme systems) ; Case studies on the use of microbial reactors in large-scale production (e.g., antibiotics, biofuels).
• Upstream and Downstream Processing: Media formulation and optimization; Sterilization of air and media; Filtration - membrane filtration, ultra filtration; Centrifugation - high speed and ultra; Cell disruption; Principles of chromatography - ion exchange, gel filtration, hydrophobic interaction, affinity, GC, HPLC and FPLC; Extraction, adsorption and drying; Measurement devices; Valves; First order and second order systems; Feedback and feed forward control; Types of controllers – proportional, derivative and integral control; T uning of controllers.

Plant, Animal and Microbial Biotechnology

• Plants: Totipotency; Cell fate transition, direct and indirect organogenesis, regeneration of plants; Plant growth regulators and elicitors; Tissue culture and cell suspension culture system - methodology, kinetics of growth and nutrient optimization; Production of secondary metabolites; Hairy root culture; Plant products of industrial importance; Artificial seeds; Somaclonal variation; Protoplast, protoplast fusion - somatic hybrid and cybrid; Transgenic plants - direct and indirect methods of gene transfer techniques; Selection marker and reporter gene; Plastid transformation.
• Animals: Culture media composition and growth conditions; Animal cell and tissue preservation; Anchorage and non-anchorage dependent cell culture; Kinetics of cell growth; Micro & macro - carrier culture; Hybridoma technology; Stem cell technology; Animal cloning; Transgenic animals; Knock-out and knock-in animals.
• Microbes: Production of biomass and primary/secondary metabolites - Biofuels, bioplastics, industrial enzymes, antibiotics; Large scale production and purification of recombinant proteins and metabolites; Clinical-, food- and industrial- microbiology; Screening strategies for new products.

Recombinant DNA technology and Other Tools in Biotechnology

• Recombinant DNA technology: Restriction and modification enzymes; Vectors - plasmids, bacteriophage and other viral vectors, cosmids, Ti plasmid, bacterial and yeast artificial chromosomes; Expression vectors; cDNA and genomic DNA library Gene isolation and cloning, strategies for production of recombinant prot eins; Transposons and gene targeting, Recombination-based gene cloning.
• Molecular tools: Polymerase chain reaction; DNA/RNA labelling and Sangers and next generation sequencing; Southern and northern blotting; In-situ hybridization; DNA fingerprinting, RAPD, RFLP; Site-directed mutagenesis; CRISPR -Cas; Biosensing and biosensors; DNA-protein and protein -protein interaction tools; Genomics and proteomics-based approaches.
• Analytical tools: Principles of microscopy - light, electron, fluorescence and confocal; Principles of spectroscopy- UV, visible, fluorescence, CD, IR, FT -IR, MS, NMR; Electrophoresis; Micro - arrays; Enzymatic assays; Immunoassays - ELISA, RIA, immunohistochemistry; Immunoblotting; Flow cytometry; Whole genome and ChIP sequencing.
• Computational tools: Bioinformatics resources and search tools; Sequence and structure databases; Sequence analysis - sequence file formats, scoring matrices, alignment, phylogeny; Genomics, proteomics, metabolomics; Gene prediction; Functional annotation; Secondary structure and 3D structure prediction; Knowledge discovery in biochemical databases; Metagenomics; Metabolic engineering and systems biology.

General Aptitude Syllabus

General Aptitude contributes 15 marks within the 100-mark paper. It is not an additional paper that can be left out when choosing the technical sections.

Chapter-wise Weightage and Important Topics

The marks split above is fixed at section level. IIT Madras has not assigned a guaranteed number of marks to each chapter of Biotechnology. A topic may appear in one year and receive fewer questions in another; a past-paper count is not an official 2027 weightage.

For a chapter-weightage comparison, record the year, paper code, session, question number and marks of each matching question. Keep a combined question under one main topic or label the overlap explicitly; counting it twice inflates the total. GATE previous-year question papers can be used for this topic-by-topic practice.

Question Types and Negative Marking

The paper uses one-mark and two-mark questions. The number of MCQ, MSQ and NAT questions is not a fixed chapter-wise quota. In an MSQ, selecting one correct option is not enough when the correct answer contains two options.

Using the 2027 Syllabus for Preparation

Connect molecular biology to experimental interpretation and bioprocess calculations. Practise growth, enzyme-kinetics and material-balance questions as calculations, not only as definitions of the underlying terms.

Match each exercise to the current unit list. A previous-year paper may use an older scope or section code. When a current topic has no matching older question, practise that concept separately rather than deleting it from the plan. The GATE preparation plan covers full-paper practice and revision alongside topic study.

1. Unit and Topic Reference
2. Sections and Marks

1. Mathematics and General Aptitude
2. Practice and Marking Reference