Biotechnology and Its Applications - NEET Previous-Year Questions
Biotechnology and Its Applications is one of the most dependable scoring chapters in NEET Botany - it has yielded questions in every recent paper, and what it asks for is precise recall, not analysis. Across NEET 2019-2026 the examiners keep returning to a small number of territories. Treat the list below as a checklist of skills, not an answer key: each entry says what you must be able to do before attempting the set, and withholds the names and the wording, because those are what is tested.
1. Recombinant insulin. The most-worked area. Describe the mature hormone's two-chain arrangement and the linkage holding them together; to say what the extra stretch carried by the prohormone is called and what becomes of it during maturation; to name the host organism the chains were expressed in, and how they were finally joined. Know too the property of the genetic code that lets a bacterial cell read a human gene at all - the examiner has asked for it by name.
2. Gene therapy and ADA deficiency. Learn the definition of gene therapy phrase by phrase - what is delivered, into whom, and what it compensates for. Then know which enzyme is missing, which body system its absence cripples, the two partial treatments and why neither cures, which cells are withdrawn, engineered and returned, and why the procedure must be repeated.
3. Molecular diagnosis. Several techniques detect a pathogen or a defective gene early. State the principle each rests on, what each detects, and why detection before symptoms appear is the point. This attracts NOT-type items, costlier than they look: you must confirm three options before rejecting the fourth, so revise every application listed for each technique.
4. Bt toxin and the cry genes. Know what form the toxin is stored in, why the bacterium comes to no harm, what condition in a susceptible insect's gut converts it, and what the activated toxin does to the gut lining. Be able to pair specific cry genes with the pests they control, in both directions, and to name the insect groups Bt crops work against. Asked as a Statement I / Statement II item and as a pairing.
5. RNA interference. Say what RNAi is for, in which organisms it operates, what kind of RNA triggers silencing and why, and where that RNA comes from. Know the nematode-and-tobacco application in full: what was introduced, by which vector, what it transcribes, and why the parasite cannot survive.
6. Transgenic organisms and their products. Know what Golden Rice was engineered to do, and which advantage of GM crops it is filed under. Know the human protein obtained from transgenic animals and the condition it treats, in both directions; the named first transgenic cow and the protein her milk carried; and the headings under which transgenic-animal uses are organised.
7. Ethics and regulation. This end recurs far more often than students expect, and it is pure recall - the cheapest marks in the set. Know the Indian body that judges the validity of GM research and the safety of releasing GM organisms, by its full expansion and its remit. Know the definition of biopiracy and the traditional-knowledge patent disputes cited.
How to use this set. Most questions below are previous-year NEET questions carrying the year they appeared in; the remainder, tagged Exam Pattern, follow patterns NEET has examined repeatedly. Read the set as evidence about the paper: the medical applications and the Bt/RNAi mechanisms take by far the largest share, while ethics and regulation is over-represented relative to its space in the chapter. Note the forms too - multi-statement selects, Statement I / Statement II pairs, pairings and NOT-types. Attempt all 18 in one timed sitting of 35 to 50 minutes with these notes closed, then read every explanation, including for items you answered correctly.