Explore topic-wise InterviewSolutions in Current Affairs.

Lainpbrush chromosomes occur at Diplotene stage of meiotic Prophase I.  

“The evolution and classification of flowering plants” – book was written by Cronquist.

1. Terrestrial 

2. conducting tissue Xylem and phloem 

3. Plant body is Sporophyte 

4. It is differentiated into true roots, stem and leaves. 

5. Leaves are small or large. 

6. Sporophyll produces sporangia. 

7. Gametophyte is called prothallus.

8. Sex organs are antheridia and archegonia. 

9. Heterosporous or Homosporous.

The correct answer is Odisha.

• The Barabati stadium was built and established in 1958 by the Odisha Cricket Association. 
• The stadium is mostly used for Cricket, sometimes Football and Hockey also.
• Headquarter of International Cricket Council(ICC) - Dubai, Abu Dhabi.
• Headquarter of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) - Mumbai. 

• Other big stadiums include Kalinga stadium and Brahmapur stadium.  
• India's largest hockey stadium planned in Rourkela, Odisha.
• The name of the stadium is Rourkela stadium and will act as the second venue for the 2023 Hockey World Cup.
• Himachal Pradesh - Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium at Dharamshala, Atal Vihari Vajpayee stadium, etc.
• Assam - Barsapara Cricket Stadium and Nehru stadium.
• Goa - Jawahar Lal Nehru stadium Football stadium.

• Chief Minister of Odisha - Naveen Patnaik, 14th CM.
• Governor of Odisha - Ganeshi Lal.

Number of floral parts per whorl is called Merosity.

General characteristic features of Pteridophytes: 

1. Plant body is sporophyte (2n) and it is the dominant phase. It is differentiated into root, stem and leaves. 

2. Roots are adventitious. 

3. Stem shows monopodial or dichotomous branching. 

4. Leaves may be microphyllous or megaphyllous. 

5. Stele is protostele but in some forms siphonostele is present (Marsilea) 

6. Tracheids are the major water conducting elements but in Selaginella vessels are found. 

7. Sporangia, spore bearing bag like structures are borne on special leaves called sporophyll. The sporophylls gets organized to form cone or strobilus. e.g., Selaginella and Equisetum. 

8. They may be homosporous (produce one type of spores – Lycopodium) or Heterosporous (produce two types of spores -Selaginella). Heterospory is the origin for seed habit. 

9. Development of sporangia may be eusporangiate (development of sporangium from group of initials) or leptosporangiate (development of sporangium from single initial). 

10. Spore mother cells undergo meiosis and produce spores (n). 

11. Spore germinates to produce haploid, multicellular green, cordate shaped independent gametophytes called prothallus. 

12. Fragmentation, resting buds, root tubers and adventitious buds help in vegetative reproduction. 

13. Sexual reproduction is Oogamous. Sex organs, namely antheridium and archegonium are produced on the prothallus. 

14. Antheridium produces spirally coiled and multiflagellate antherozoids. 

15. Archegonium is flask shaped with broad venter and elongated narrow neck. The venter possesses egg or ovum and neck contain neck canal cells. 

16. Water is essential for fertilization. After fertilization a diploid zygote is formed and undergoes mitotic division to form embryo. 

17. Pteridophytes show apogamy and apospory.

(d) Glycocalyx

The term bacterium was coined by Ehrenberg.

1. Overall senescence: This kind of senescence occurs in annual plants when entire plant gets affected and dies. 

Example: Wheat and Soybean. It also occurs in few perennials also. 

Example: Agave and Bamboo. 

2. Top senescence: It occurs in aerial parts of plants. It is common in perennials, underground and root system remains viable.

Example: Banana and Gladiolus.

3. Deciduous senescence: It is common in deciduous plants and occurs only in leaves of plants, bulk of the stem and root system remains alive. 

Example: Elm and Maple. 

4. Progressive senescence: This kind of senescence is gradual. First it occurs in old leaves followed by new leaves then stem and finally root system. It is common in annuals.

Correct option is (4) members of deuteromycetes

• The members of this group are prokaryotes and lack motile reproductive structures.
• The thallus is unicellular in Chroococcus, colonial in Gloeocapsa and filamentous trichome in Nostoc.
• Gliding movement is noticed in some species (Oscillatorid).
• The protoplasm is differentiated into central region called centroplasm and peripheral region bearing chromatophore called chromoplasm.
• The photosynthetic pigments include c – phydcyanin and c – phycoerythrin along with myxoxanthin and myxoxanthophyll.
• The reserve food material is cyanophycean starch.
• In some forms a large colourless cell is found in the terminal or intercalary position called heterocysts. They are involved in nitrogen fixation
• They reproduce only through vegetative methods and produce akinetes (thick wall dormant cell formed from vegetative cell), hormogonia (a portion of filament get detached and reproduce by cell division), fission and endospores.
• The presence of mucilage around the thallus is characteristic feature of this group. Therefore, this group is also called Myxophyceae.
• Sexual reproduction is absent.
• Microcystis aeruginosa and Anabaena flos – aquae cause water blooms and release toxins and affect the aquatic organism. Most of them fix atmospheric nitrogen and are used as biofertilizers (Example: Nostoc and Anabaena). Spirulina is rich in protein hence it is used as single cell protein.

Correct option is (3) Mushroom, Ustilago, Agaricus

Correct option is (1) Rust and smut

• Basidiomycetes include puffballs, toad stools, Bird nest’s fungi, Bracket fungi, stink horns, rusts and smuts.
• The members are terrestrial and lead a saprophytic and parasitic mode of life.
• The mycelium is well developed, septate with dolipore septum (bracket like). Three types of mycelium namely primary (Monokaryotic), secondary (Dikaryotic) and tertiary are found.
• Clamp connections are formed to maintain dikaryotic condition.
• Asexual reproduction is by means of conidia, oidia or budding.
• Sexual reproduction is present but sex organs are absent. Somatogamy or spermatisation results in plasmogamy. Karyogamy is delayed and – dikaryotic phase is prolonged. Karyogamy takes place in basidium and it is immediately followed by meiotic division.
• The four nuclei thus formed are transformed into basidiospores which are borne on sterigmata outside the basidium (Exogenous). The basidium is club shaped with four basidiospores, thus this group of fungi is popularly called “Club fungi”. The fruit body formed is called Basidiocarp.

Fixation and reduction of CO₂ into carbohydrates with the help of assimilatory power produced during light reaction. This reaction does not require light and is not directly light driven. Hence, it is called as Dark reaction or Calvin-Benson cycle.

The correct answer is Ernst Mayr.

• Ernst Mayr established evolutionary biology as a separate field of research in the United States which earned him the name “Darwin of the 20th century.”
• Ernst Mayr from Germany helped to define the modern synthesis of evolutionary theory.

• Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall Warren Nirenberg were Biochemists who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1968 for decoding the genetic material of DNA.
• Katherine Esau was a German-American botanist who received the National Medal of Science for her work on plant anatomy. 

Amon and Stout (1939) gave criteria required for essential minerals:

1. Elements necessary for growth and development. 

2. They should have direct role in the metabolism of the plant. 

3. It cannot be replaced by other elements. 

4. Deficiency makes the plants impossible to complete their vegetative and reproductive phase.

Allozymes, mitochondrial DNA, micro satellites, RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism), RAPD (Random amplified polymorphic DNA), AFLPs (Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism), Single nucleotide Polymorphism – SNP, microchips or arrays.

The movement of photosynthates (products of photosynthesis) from mesophyll cells to phloem sieve elements of mature leaves is known as phloem loading.

• Stimulation of pituitary to release oxytocin followed by stronger contractions of uterine muscles due to oxytocin.
• Further secretion of oxytocin resulting in stronger and stronger contractions that causes the expulsion of the foetus the uterus.

UV rays at on CFCs and release Cl atoms which act as catalysts, degrade, ozone, and release molecular oxygen.

Organophosphorus compounds are organic compounds containing phosphorus. They are used primarily in pest control as an alternative to chlorinated hydrocarbons that persist in the environment.

Examples of other heavy metals that cause toxic pollution are lead, cadmium and chromium.

POPs, or persistent organic pollutants, are toxic substances formed from organic compounds. POPs are made in several industrial processes, like the production of PVC, paper whitened by chlorine, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, and also in the incineration of waste. Examples of POPs are dioxins, furanes, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, heptachloride, toxaphen and hexachlorbenzene. 

POPs are toxic and highly harmful since, like the heavy metals, they are bioaccumulative, i.e., they are not degraded by the body and accumulate even more in each following trophic level of the food chains. In humans POPs can cause cancer and nervous, immune and reproductive impairments.

The upward movement of warm air is a natural method of dispersion of pollutants. The air near the ground is hotter because the sun heats the soil and the soil heats the air nearby. Since it is less dense, the warm air tends to move towards higher and colder strata of the atmosphere. Such movement helps the dispersion of pollutants.

Pollutant low altitude thermal inversion occurs in the winter. In this period of the year the sun heats the soil less and the natural upward move of warm air decreases. Therefore the pollutants form a low altitude layer between the cold air layer near the ground and another layer of warmer air above. The pollutant layer over industrial areas or big urban concentrations reduces the penetration of the sun's energy and the air bellow takes an even longer time to warm.

Ozone, O_3, is a gas of the atmosphere that filters ultraviolet radiation from the sun disallowing most of that radiation from reaching the surface of the planet. Ultraviolet radiation is harmful for living beings because it is a mutagen and can cause cancer (mainly skin cancer), other DNA mutations and even burns. 

In most cases pollution is caused by human activity. Other species and some abiotic factors however can also pollute an ecosystem. For example, the red tide is created by proliferation of some algae and volcanic dust is a consequence of the internal activity of the planet.

Pollution is the contamination of an ecosystem by factors that are harmful for the equilibrium of its biotic or abiotic constituents.

Thermal inversion confines at low altitude a layer of pollutants that would have been dispersed by the natural upward move of warm air. The solid particles present in the atmosphere cause health problems, like the exacerbation of asthma and other pulmonary diseases, cough, respiratory unease and ocular discharges; later the pollution can also trigger the appearance of cardiovascular and neoplastic diseases. 

Two solutions having same osmotic at a given temperature are isotonic solutions

s.m² mol^-1 or s.cm² mol^-1

2 mole NaOH 

1 mole of NaOH = 40g of NaOH = 6.023 × 10²³ molecules. 

2 mole of NaOH 2 × 40g = 80g of NaOH 

= 2 × 6.023 × 10²³ molecules. 

2 molar NaOH 

1 molar NaOH = 40 g of NaOH in 1000 ml of water 

2 molar NaOH = 80 g of NaOH in 100 ml of water 

= 2 moles of NaOH dissolved in 1000 ml of its solution.

Normally , the consumption of energy by a healthy human in a day is 2000 Kcal
we know, 
1Kcal = 4200 Joules 
so, consumption of energy by humankind in a day = 2000 × 4200 Joules 
= 8.4 × 10^⁶ Joules

now, 1 annual = 1 year = 365 days 
so, consumption of energy by humankind in a year = consumption of energy by humankind in a day × 365 days 
= 8.4 × 10⁶ × 365 Joules
= 3066 × 10⁶ Joules
= 3.066 × 10⁹ Joules 

We know, 
Kilo = 10³
mega = 10⁶
Giga = 10⁹
Terra = 10¹²
peta = 10¹⁵ 
exa = 10¹⁸

So,annual consumption of energy by humankind = 3.066 Giga Joules 
Hence, annual consumption of energy by humankind is in the order of Giga Joules.

Total annual usage of energy by humankind is of the order of Terra Joules

Ag has a completely filled 4d orbital (4d¹⁰ 5s¹⁾ in its ground state. Now, silver displays two oxidation states (+1 and +2). In the +1 oxidation state, an electron is removed from the s-orboital. However, in the +2 oxidation state, an electron is removed from the d-orbital. Thus, the d-orbital now becomes incomplete (4d⁹). Hence, it is a transition element.

(a) Sc has only + 3 oxidation state, there is no unpaired electron.
(b) Due to lanthanide contraction, effective nuclear charge increase.
(c) Due to gain noble gas electron conflguration.

The transition metals have their valence electrons in (n-1)d and ns orbitals. Since there is very small energy difference between (n-1)d and ns-orbitals, both energy levels can be used for bond formation. 

Thus, transition elements exhibit variable oxidation states.

(a) They are chemically inert.
(b) They retain metallic conductivity.
(c) They have high melting point than their pure metals.
(d) These are harder and more corrosion resistant.

Transition metals are large in size and contain lots of interstitial sites. Transition elements can trap atoms of other elements (that have small atomic size), such as H, C, N, in the interstitial sites of their crystal lattices. The resulting compounds are called interstitial compounds.

Transition elements are those elements in which the atoms or ions (in stable oxidation state) contain partially filled d-orbital. These elements lie in the d-block and show a transition of properties between s-block and p-block. Therefore, these are called transition elements. Elements such as Zn, Cd, and Hg cannot be classified as transition elements because these have completely filled d-subshell.

(i)  Transition metals show paramagnetic behaviour. Paramagnetism arises due to the presence of unpaired electrons with each electron having a magnetic moment associated with its spin angular momentum and orbital angular momentum. However, in the first transition series, the orbital angular momentum is quenched. Therefore, the resulting
paramagnetism is only because of the unpaired electron.
(ii) Transition elements have high effective nuclear charge and a large number of
valence electrons. Therefore, they form very strong metallic bonds. As a result, the
enthalpy of atomization of transition metals is high.
(iii) Most of the complexes of transition metals are coloured. This is because of the
absorption of radiation from visible light region to promote an electron from one of the
d−orbitals to another. In the presence of ligands, the d-orbitals split up into two sets of
orbitals having different energies. Therefore, the transition of electrons can take place
from one set toanother. The energy required for these transitions is quite small and falls

in the visible region of radiation. The ions of transition metals absorb the radiation of a
particular wavelength and the rest is reflected, imparting colour to the solution.
(iv) The catalytic activity of the transition elements can be explained by two basic facts.
(a) Owing to their ability to show variable oxidation states and form complexes, transition
metals form unstable intermediate compounds. Thus, they provide a new path with lower activation energy, Ea, for the reaction.
(b) Transition metals also provide a suitable surface for the reactions to occur.

Transition metals have a partially filled d−orbital. Therefore, the electronic configuration of transition elements is (n − 1)d^1-10 ns^0-2.

The non-transition elements either do not have a d−orbital or have a fully filled d−orbital.
Therefore, the electronic configuration of non-transition elements is ns^1-2 or ns2 np1-6.

In the lanthanide series, +3 oxidation state is most common i.e., Ln(III) compounds are predominant. However, +2 and +4 oxidation states can also be found in the solution or in solid compounds.