Botany Syllabus — SPSC Combined Competitive Examination

Phycology — distribution, classification, structure, life history and economic importance of the main groups of algae.
Mycology and plant pathology — structure, reproduction, classification and economic importance of the main groups of fungi. Diseases of economically important crops and general principles of their control.
Bryology — structure and reproduction of bryophytes; evolution of gametophyte and sporophyte.

General account with special reference to structure, life history and affinities of both pteridophytes and gymnosperms. Ontogeny and structure of seed, classification and economic importance of gymnosperms.

Primary and secondary tissues. Meristems. Secondary growth in dicot stem. Anatomy of leaf, stem and root.
Micro- and megasporogenesis, pollination mechanism, fertilization, development of embryo and endosperm, seed dispersal.

Systems of classification. Rules of botanical nomenclature. Concepts of speciation. Introduction to modern trends in plant taxonomy: bio-systematic, chemotaxonomy and numerical taxonomy. General characters and economic importance of common angiosperm families.

Plant water relations, osmotic quantities, component potentials of water and their role in transport, water absorption by roots, transpiration. Role of essential mineral elements and their uptake. Plant hormones. Photoperiodism. Vernalization. Dormancy and seed germination. Enzymes.
Photosynthesis — plant pigments, light reaction, CO₂ fixation, mechanism of photophosphorylation.
Respiration — glycolysis, Krebs cycle, mechanism of oxidative phosphorylation.

Influence of climatic, edaphic and biotic factors on plant growth. Vegetation sampling techniques. Concepts of ecosystems and their productivity, ecological energetics, pyramids (of numbers, biomass and energy), trophic levels, food chains and food webs. Biogeochemical cycles (hydrological and nitrogen). Succession.
Causes and reclamation of soil salinity and water logging in Pakistan. Soil erosion, its control and soil conservation methods. Deforestation. Biodiversity conservation. Pollution.

Cell cycle, cellular morphology, chemistry of cell wall and cell membrane, cell-to-cell communication, plant tissue and cell culture, cell senescence and cell death.
Ultra-structure of various cell organelles: mitochondria, Golgi bodies, endoplasmic reticulum, plastids, ribosomes, glyoxysomes, vacuoles, nucleus.

Mendelian genetics, multiple alleles, polygenic inheritance, gene interaction, epistasis and pleiotropy, sex-linked inheritance, chromosomal aberrations, mutations, DNA repair.

Introduction to evolution, evolutionary history, evolution of life, convergent evolution, divergent evolution, parallel evolution and natural selection.

Nucleic acids, DNA as hereditary material, DNA replication, transcription, genetic code, protein synthesis, genetic engineering and its application, genetically modified organisms (GMO).

11 titles

Title	Author
Esau's Plant Anatomy: Meristems, Cells and Tissues of the Plant Body: Their Structure, Function and Development	Evert, F.F. and S. Hichhorn, 2006
Cryptogamic Botany: Algae and Fungi	Smith, G. M., 2001
Cryptogamic Botany: Bryophyte and Pteridophyte	Smith, G. M., 2001
Comparative Morphology of the Vascular Plants	Foster, A.S. and E.H. Gifford, 1989
Plant and Environment	Daubermine, R.F., 1974
Plant Taxonomy and Biosystematics	Stace, C. A., 1980
Plant Physiology	Taiz, L. & E. Zeiger, 2006
Genetics: A Conceptual Approach, 4th edition	Pierce, B. A., 2012
Molecular Cell Biology	Lodish, H., A. Berk, S.L. Zipursky, P. Matsudaira, D. Baltimore and J. Darnell, 2000
Concepts of Genetics, 10th edition	William S. Klug, 2012
Ilmi Biomolecules, Cell Biology and Genetics	Cheema, T.A. and Cheema Z.T., 2009

Others in Group V

You may take one subject from this group, so these are alternatives to Botany, not companions to it.