Here are the top 50 commonly asked questions in Molecular Biology interviews. Whether you’re just starting your preparation or need a quick refresher, these questions and answers will help you tackle your interview with confidence.
Basic Molecular Biology Interview Questions with Answers
1. What is Molecular Biology?
Molecular Biology is a field of biotechnology which deals with all the molecular units, pathways, and processes at the molecular level. The name itself suggests that biology at molecular level is molecular biology.
2. Why study of molecular biology is important?
Molecular biology is linked with every aspect of life. So, studying molecular biology enables us about basic aspects of life and enhances one’s knowledge about life.
3. Who is the father of Molecular Biology?
Dr Max Perutz is considered as father of molecular biology. He discovered hemoglobin structure and laid the ultimate base for molecular biology.
4. When was Molecular Biology discovered?
It is believed that molecular biology was truly discovered in early 1930s. During 1950-1960, Molecular Biology gained massive momentum around the globe.
5. Which events led to the attraction of Molecular Biology?
Discovery of DNA as the original genetic material and discover of hemoglobin structure are some of the events, led to attraction of molecular biology.
6. Which scientists contributed to development of Molecular Biology?
James Watson, Francis Crick, Alfred Hershey, and Martha Chase are the few examples of scientists who contributed to development of Molecular Biology.
7. Who termed the coin “Molecular Biology”?
Warren Weaver termed the coin “Molecular Biology”. He termed it in the year 1938.
8. How Molecular biology aids in Cancer treatment?
Cancer causing agents are called oncogenes. Molecular Biology helps is studying these oncogenes and develop new techniques to diagnose and treat cancer.
9. What is the importance of Molecular Biology?
Molecular biology deals at molecular level of life. Molecular Biology gives information about the cellular processes of all organisms and helps to invent new processes to overcome any difficulties in molecular world.
10. How Molecular Biology is linked with evolution?
Molecular Biology includes all the genes and variation sources. It makes an easy comparison between earlier and new species. It also helps in finding out relationship between species.
11. How difficult is Molecular Biology?
Molecular biology is a very difficult subject. It’s complex molecular mechanisms and pathways are quite tough to understand.
12. What are the main goals of Molecular Biology?
The main goal of molecular biology includes analytical problem-solving abilities, molecular literacy among learners, evaluative qualities, and experimental knowledge.
13. What are the applications of Molecular Biology?
The application of molecular biology includes finding solutions to scientific problems, generation of useful drugs and products and finding relations among species.
14. What is the significance of Molecular Biology?
Molecular biology gives valuable information about protein-protein interaction, translation, transcription, reverse transcription, molecular domains etc.
15. What is the use of Molecular Biology in day-to-day life?
Molecular biology is the major equipment for a person’s health. Good health can be achieved by knowing about basic molecular processes that occurs inside human body.
16. How molecular Biology is different from Biochemistry?
Molecular Biology is the branch of biology that deals with life and its various processes at molecular level. Biochemistry deals with chemical interactions among biological entities.
17. What are the properties of Molecular Biology?
There are various properties of Molecular Biology. The most important of all is that biological functions are dependent on mechanisms occurring at the molecular level of life.
18. What are the characteristics of Molecular Biology?
Molecular biology primarily deals with DNA, RNA, and proteins. It is an important field of biotechnology which provides information about molecular interactions.
19. What are the advantages of Molecular Biology?
Molecular Biology clearly explains about the central dogma of life, which is very important in understanding units of life, their relations, and functions.
20. What are the disadvantages of Molecular Biology?
Molecular Biology techniques fail to distinguish between inactive and active viruses. It also lacks specificity is some techniques that can be a cause for wrong assumptions.
Intermediate Molecular Biology Interview Questions with Answers
21. What is molecular genetics?
The field which studies the molecular structure of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is called Molecular genetics. The double helical structure of DNA is studied thoroughly in molecular genetics.
22. What is genetic engineering?
The process of altering DNA’s genetic makeup is called genetic engineering. Genetic engineering includes replication process which is a part of central dogma of life.
23. What are biomolecules?
Biomolecules are functional biological molecules. These biomolecules play an important role in many molecular and biological processes. Biomolecules mainly include lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates,
24. What is gene therapy?
The process of treating and curing molecular diseases by altering a person’s genes is called gene therapy. In gene therapy, a healthy gene is replaced in place of a defective gene.
25. What is Microinjection?
Microinjection is an experimental technique. Microinjection is the process of transferring genetic materials such as DNA or RNA into live cells using micro needles or micropipettes.
26. What is nucleic acid hybridization?
The process of interacting different single stranded (ss) RNA or DNA to produce hybrid products is called nucleic acid hybridization.
27. What are genetic disorders?
The diseases which occur due to mutation in either single gene or multiple genes are called genetic disorders. Single gene mutation is called monogenetic disorder and multiple genes mutation is called multifactorial disorder.
28. What is genes arrangement?
On chromosomes, the process of arranging genes one by one is a orderly fashion is called gene arrangement. The arrangement of genes is linear in nature.
29. What is protein function?
Proteins are multifunctional in nature. They provide structural support to cells. Protein molecules take part in molecular mechanism or pathways to amplify the reaction rate of pathways.
30. What is cell lysis?
Cell lysis is an important experimental technique in biology. Cell lysis helps in cleavage of cell, allowing particles to burst out of the cell.
31. What are molecular diseases?
The diseases which are caused due to alteration in person’s molecular structure and function are called molecular diseases. Examples of molecular diseases are sickle cell anemia, Huntington’s disease etc.
32. What is human genome?
The complete set of human chromosomes is called human genome. Human genome includes a total of three billion base pairs (bp) of DNA.
33. What is genetic mutation?
The process of alteration in genetic sequences is called genetic mutation. Genetic mutation is the base for diversity among different types of species.
34. What is forensic molecular biology?
Forensic molecular biology is a field of molecular biology domain which includes studying total human DNA content. Forensic molecular biology aids in solving criminal cases.
35. What is proteomics?
Proteomics is the field of molecular biology which deals with protein analysis in a large-scale medium. It includes complete set of proteins and their analysis.
36. What is structural genomics?
The field of molecular biology that deals with studying the complete structure of genomes is called structural genomes. It includes primary, secondary and tertiary structures of genomes.
37. How is toxicogenomics related to molecular biology?
Toxic expression of molecules are studies in toxicogenomics and biological markers are developed using the results from studying the toxicity expression in molecular biology.
38. What is functional genomics?
The field of molecular biology which deals with genes, their functions and interaction among genes is called functional genomics. It includes all parts of genome and its functionality.
39. What is human genome project?
The international project on complete human gene is called human genome project. It was a mutual project led by researchers and scientists of highest caliber to map out total set of human genes.
40. What are biological membranes?
The membranes which are an integral part of biological systems are called biological membranes. Biological membranes aids in different processes like import, export, symport, antiport and uniport etc.
41. What is protein metabolism?
The process of synthesis and degradation of protein molecules is called protein metabolism. It includes synthesis of proteins called anabolism and breakdown of proteins called catabolism.
42. What is nucleic acid metabolism?
The process of synthesis and degradation of DNA and RNA is called nucleic acid metabolism. It includes both catabolism and anabolism.
43. What is protein folding?
The process of converting primary inactive polypeptide chain folding to get converted into active 3-D protein structure is called protein folding.
44. What are DNA lesions?
DNA lesions are the sites where consists of damaged DNA portion. This is the unusual DNA chemical structure which can be corrected.
45. What is base excision repair?
Nucleotide base excision repair is one of the two DNA repair mechanism. It removes the damaged base of DNA and then addition of new DNA base takes place.
46. What is nucleotide excision repair?
Nucleotide excision repair is one of two DNA repair mechanism. It removes the damaged nucleotides or bases and is replaced by a new functional DNA portion.
47. What is DNA sequencing?
The process of determining sequences of bases i.e., Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine is called Deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA). Sequencing of DNA aids in determining protein functionality.
48. What are phenotypes?
The outer physical appearance is called phenotype. These are the character which are not present inside and are visible in nature.
49. What are genotypes?
The genetic material of organism is called genotype. It includes hereditary information in the form of gene. It is present inside the body of organism.
50. How is life science investigation interrelated with molecular biology?
Life science investigation along with molecular biology aids in creating new methods and approaches in scientific experimentation world. Together they help in discoveries of new drugs, experimentation techniques etc.
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