GATE 2025 syllabus – BT: Biotechnology

GATE 2025 syllabus for Biotechnology (BT) gives you details of the latest GATE syllabus for the subject released by the official gate organizing institute IIT Roorkee for the year 2025. We also created an easy-to-use ad-free mobile app for the GATE syllabus, previous year papers with keys, gate calculator, virtual calculator, and more. Download iStudy App for all GATE preparation needs.

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GATE 2025 syllabus – Biotechnology (BT)

Section 1: Engineering Mathematics

Linear Algebra
Matrices and determinants; Systems of linear equations; Eigen values and Eigen vectors.

Calculus
Limits, continuity and differentiability; Partial derivatives, maxima and minima; Sequences and series; Test for convergence.

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.

Numerical Methods
Solution of linear and nonlinear algebraic equations; Integration by trapezoidal and Simpson’s rule; Single step method for differential equations.

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Section 2: 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; 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
Bacterial classification and diversity; Microbial Ecology – microbes in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems; Microbial interactions; Viruses – structure and classification; Methods in microbiology; Microbial growth and nutrition; Nitrogen fixation; Microbial diseases and host-pathogen interactions; Antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance.

Immunology
Innate and adaptive immunity, humoral and cell mediated immunity; Antibody structure and function; Molecular basis of antibody diversity; T cell and B cell development; Antigen-antibody reaction; Complement; Primary and secondary lymphoid organs; Major histocompatibility complex (MHC); Antigen processing and presentation; Polyclonal and monoclonal antibody; Regulation of immune response; Immune tolerance; Hypersensitivity; Autoimmunity; Graft versus host reaction; Immunization and vaccines.

Section 3: 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; Horizontal gene transfer and transposable elements; Chromosomal variation; Genetic disorders; Population genetics; Epigenetics; Selection and inheritance; Adaptive and neutral evolution; Genetic drift; Species and speciation.

Cell Biology
Prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell structure; Cell cycle and cell growth control; Cell-cell communication; Cell signaling and signal transduction; 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.

Section 4: Fundamentals of Biological Engineering

Engineering principles applied to biological systems
Material and energy balances for reactive and nonreactive systems; Recycle, bypass and purge processes; Stoichiometry of growth and product formation; Degree of reduction, electron balance, theoretical oxygen demand.

Classical thermodynamics and Bioenergetics
Laws of thermodynamics; Solution thermodynamics; Phase equilibria, reaction equilibria; Ligand binding; Membrane potential; Energetics of metabolic pathways, oxidation and reduction reactions.

Transport Processes
Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids, fluid flow – laminar and turbulent; Mixing in bioreactors, mixing time; Molecular diffusion and film theory; Oxygen transfer and uptake in bioreactor, kLa and its measurement; Conductive and convective heat transfer, LMTD, overall heat transfer coefficient; Heat exchangers.

Section 5: Bioprocess Engineering and Process Biotechnology

Bioreaction engineering
Rate law, zero and first order kinetics; 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.

Upstream and Downstream Processing
Media formulation and optimization; Sterilization of air and media; Filtration – membrane filtration, ultrafiltration; 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.

Instrumentation and Process Control
Pressure, temperature and flow measurement devices; Valves; First order and second order systems; Feedback and feed forward control; Types of controllers – proportional, derivative and integral control, tuning of controllers.

Section 6: Plant, Animal, and Microbial Biotechnology

Plants
Totipotency; 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.

Section 7: 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 proteins; Transposons and gene targeting;

Molecular tools
Polymerase chain reaction; DNA/RNA labelling and sequencing; Southern and northern blotting; In-situ hybridization; DNA fingerprinting, RAPD, RFLP; Site-directed mutagenesis; Gene transfer technologies; CRISPR-Cas; Biosensing and biosensors.

Analytical tools
Principles of microscopy – light, electron, fluorescent and confocal; Principles of spectroscopy – UV, visible, CD, IR, fluorescence, 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.

If you are preparing for GATE, download iStudy Mobile App for all GATE Syllabus, Previous Question Papers and Keys, preparation guide, Exam updates, Gate Virtual calculator, Gate Score calculator, and IITs & NITs cutoffs. It is a lightweight, easy to use, no images, and no ads platform to make students’ lives easier.
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GENERAL APTITUDE (Common for all branches)

Verbal Aptitude

Basic English Grammar
Tenses, articles, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, verb-noun agreement, and other parts of speech

Basic Vocabulary
Words, idioms, and phrases in context

Reading and Comprehension

Narrative Sequencing

Quantitative Aptitude

Data Interpretation
Data graphs (bar graphs, pie charts, and other graphs representing data), 2- and 3-dimensional plots, maps, and tables

Numerical Computation and Estimation
Ratios, percentages, powers, exponents and logarithms, permutations and combinations, and series

Mensuration and Geometry

Elementary Statistics and Probability

Analytical Aptitude

Logic
Deduction and Induction

Analogy

Numerical Relations and Reasoning

Spatial Aptitude

Transformation of Shapes
Translation, rotation, scaling, mirroring, assembling, and grouping

Paper folding, cutting, and patterns in 2 and 3 dimensions

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