Students must pass exams in 4 topics. Topics must be selected such that two of them are from one subject area and two of them could be from the remaining two subject areas or one of each*. Main subjects and the topics are listed below.
*One of the topics may be selected from the topics of other PhD programs with the approval of the student's adviser.
Subject areas and topics:
Plant Biotechnology:
- Plant biotechnology
- Plant immunity
- Plant molecular biology and genetics
- Plant nutrition
- Plant physiology
Molecular Biology
- Applied protein engineering
- Cell biology
- Immunology and signal transduction
- Molecular biology and biochemistry
- Molecular medicine
Bioinformatics
- Computational biology
- Structural biology
- Computational genome analysis
The faculty members of the MBGB program suggest that the following are appropriate study subjects/references for these exams. If a resource is not indicated please consult with a faculty member whos research is similar to the subject in question or the graduate area advisor.
- Plant biotechnology exam:
Textbook: Plant Biotechnology The genetic manipulation of plants Second Edition Adrian Slater, Nigel Scott, and Mark Fowler ISBN: 9780199282616 - Plant immunity exam:
The suggestion of the qualifying exam committee are to be familiar with the textbook, Plant Pathology, George N. Agrios (5th Ed), with particular emphasis on the following chapters and subjects:- Chapter 4 Genetics of plant disease
- Chapter 5 How pathogens attack plants
- Chapter 6 How plants defend against pathogens
Also, be familiar with the book, Molecular Plant Immunity, Editor: Guido Sessa, 2013 (ISBN-13: 978-0-4709-5950-3/2013) with particular emphasis on the following chapters and subjects:- Chapter 1 The Rice Xa21 immune receptor
- Chapter 2 Molecular basis of effector recoginition by plant NB-LRR
- Chapter 3 Signal transduction pathways activated by R proteins
- Chapter 5 Effectors of bacterial pathogens
- Chapter 6 The roles of TAL effectors in virulance and avirulance of Xanthomonas
- Plant physiology exam:
Textbook: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plants, 2nd Edition Bob B. Buchanan, Wilhelm Gruissem, Russell L. Jones ISBN: 978-0-470-71421-8- Chapter 1 Membrane Structure and Membranous Organelles
- Chapter 11 Cell Division
- Chapter 21 Responses to Plant Pathogens
- Cell biology exam:
Textbook: Molecular Biology of The Cell- Chapter 12 Intracellular compartments and protein sorting
- Chapter 13. Intracellular Membrane Traffic
- Chapter 15 Cell Signalling /Notch signaling/ Nonsense mediated decay
- Chapter 17 Cell Cycle
- Chapter 18 Cell Death
- Immunology and signal transduction exam:
Textbook: Janeway's Immunobiology (9th Ed), (or similar) with particular emphasis on the following chapters and subjects:
- Chapters 1-10.
- Molecular biology and biochemistry exam
Textbook: Molecular Biology of The Cell- Chapter 6: How Cells Read the Genome: From DNA to Protein
- From DNA to RNA
- From RNA to Protein - Chapter 7. Control of Gene Expression
- Chapter 6: How Cells Read the Genome: From DNA to Protein
- Molecular medicine exam
Textbook: The Biology of Cancer (Weinberg)- Chapter 2: Nature of Cancer
- Chapter 11: Multi-step Tumorigenesis
- Chapter 14: Moving out: Invasion and Metastasis
- Computational biology exam:
Textbook: Setubal JoC, Meidanis Jo. Introduction to computational molecular biology. Boston: PWS Pub.
Important material:- Sequence comparison
- Database search
- Fragment assembly of DNA
- Physical mapping of DNA
- Phylogenetic trees
- Genome rearrangements
- Structural bioinformatics
- RNA structure prediction
- Protein structure prediction
- Homology modeling
- Molecular docking
- Structural biology exam
Textbooks:
- Introduction to Protein Structure Branden & Tooze
- Crystallography Made Crystal Clear: A Guide for Users of Macromolecular Models, Gale Rhodes
- Protein Structure and Function, Gregory Petsko