BioInformatics National Certification (BINC)
Examination 2009
Instituted by: Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, New Delhi
Coordinated by: Bioinformatics Centre, University of Pune

Sample Questions for Paper I (Objective type)


Subject: BIOINFORMATICS

1.What is PROSITE?
A.A database of protein structures
B.A database of interacting proteins
C.A database of protein motifs
D.A search tool

2.You have two distantly related proteins. Which BLOSUM or PAM matrix would you
choose to compare them?
A.BLOSUM45 or PAM250
B.BLOSUM60 or PAM1
C.BLOSUM80 or PAM120
D.BLOSUM80 or PAM1

3.What is the difference between RefSeq and GenBank?
A.RefSeq includes publicly available DNA sequences
B.GenBank includes nonredundant curated data
C.GenBank sequences are derived from RefSeq
D.RefSeq sequences are derived from GenBank

4.The two main features of any phylogenetic tree are the
A.clades and the nodes
B.topology and the branch lengths
C.clades and the root
D.alignment and the bootstrap

5.The approach that can be used to predict the 3D structure of a protein which has no
detectable sequence similarity with the available templates is
A. homology modeling
B. comparative modeling
C. fold recognition
D.ab initiomodeling

Subject: Biology

1.Phase of the cell cycle during which replication occurs is
A. G0 phase
B. M phase
C. G1/G2 phase
D. S phase

2.Polycistronic mRNA refers to
A.mRNA which is transcribed by multiple RNA polymerases
B.mRNAs that are simultaneously translated
C.mRNA that is translated by many ribosomes simultaneously
D.mRNA with multiple open reading frames

3.Total number of carbon atoms in lauric acid is
A. 10
B. 12
C. 14
D. 16

4.An enzyme was purified from liver extract. The total activity and total protein were
estimated at each step of purification. During this process the
A.specific activity increases and total activity increases
B.specific activity decreases and total activity increases
C.specific activity increases and total activity decreases
D.specific activity and total activity remain unchanged

5.Which pair of amino acids absorbs the most UV light at 280nm?
A.Thr and His
B.Trp and Tyr
C.Cys and Asp
D.Phe and Pro

Subject: Physical and Chemical Sciences

1.Equilibrium constant, Kp, of a chemical reaction has
A. no unit.
B.unit in the order of pressure.
C.unit in the order of concentration.
D.unit containing both concentration and pressure.

2.Which of the following statements is true?
A.Tetrachloromethane is a polar solvent while chloroform is not.
B.Chloroform is a polar solvent while tetrachloromethane is not.
C.Both chloroform and tetrachloromethane are polar solvents
D.Both chloroform and tetrachloromethane are non-polar solvents

3.In magnetic resonance imaging, one looks at
A.proton signals of water
B.proton signals of proteins
C.nitrogen signals of proteins
D.phosphorus signals of DNA or phospholipids

4.Distance between the point (2, -3, 4) and any point on the surface
x2 + y2 + z2 – 4x + 6y –8z + 4 = 0 is
A. 4
B. 5
C. 6
D. 7

5.Mean and variance are equal for a distribution which is
A.symmetric
B.normal
C.poisson
D.skew

Subject: Information Technology

1.In which of the following systems, there is a stringent timing constraint?
A. Batch
B. Online
C. Real-time
D. Offline

2.Which protocol is used by browsers to communicate between two machines?
A. ftp
B. ssl
C. tcp
D. http

3.The relationship between the colour of the eyes and the colour of the skin in humans is an
example of
A. one-to-one relationship
B. one-to-many relationship
C. many-to-one relationship
D. many-to-many relationship

4.The clarity of a displayed image is NOT dependent on the
A. resolution
B.floating point precision of the system
C. associated software
D. aspect ratio

5.Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of all Object Oriented Programming
Languages?
A. Inheritance
B. Garbage collection
C. Abstraction
D. Data hiding