Maharashtra HSC Biology case studies
Maharashtra HSC Biology · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Maharashtra HSC Biology paper is the Class 12 biology examination set by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE). It is taken by Science-stream students who need biology as a subject for their higher secondary certificate, and it is the usual route into medical, paramedical, agricultural, biotechnology and pure-science degree courses in the state. The Maharashtra HSC Biology case studies are 5 cases and about 4,565 words.
1A 45-Chromosome Mother and a Family Asking About Recurrence
Mrs K., 41, from Nashik, has just delivered a boy with hypotonia, a single palmar crease and a flat nasal bridge. The infant's blood karyotype, scored on 30 metaphases, reads 46,XY,der(14;21)(q10;q10),+21: he carries two free copies of chromosome 21, one normal 14 and one translocation chromosome.
916 words, about 5 min2Blue Colonies, White Colonies and an Insulin That Did Not Work
A Pune laboratory is asked to make recombinant human insulin in Escherichia coli. The team PCR-amplifies the insulin gene from a human genomic DNA library using primers flanking the coding sequence, ligates the product into pUC19 cut with EcoRI, and transforms DH5-alpha.
935 words, about 5 min3Midday Wilting Under Drip Irrigation in Solapur
In the first week of February, a tomato grower near Solapur, using black plastic mulch and drip irrigation, finds his plants wilting from about 11:30 and recovering by 18:30 with no additional irrigation. Measurements: soil moisture at 30 cm is 24% (field capacity 26%, permanent wilting point 12%); predawn leaf water potential is minus 0.35 MPa, falling to minus 1.6 MPa at 13:00; stomatal conductance falls from 320 to 60 mmol per square metre per second; leaf temperature is 6 degrees Celsius above air temperature at midday.
954 words, about 5 min4A Diabetic with Creatinine 3.1 and Three Requests
A 58-year-old man from Nagpur, a bus mechanic with type 2 diabetes for 14 years, attends a screening camp. For eight months he has taken diclofenac 75 mg twice daily for knee pain and has followed a 'bodybuilding' diet with a protein powder, giving a total protein intake of about 1.8 g per kg per day.
843 words, about 4 min5Mercury at 0.0008 mg per Litre in a Riverside Village
Downstream of an industrial estate on a Maharashtra river, mercury in the water is 0.0008 mg per litre, below the drinking-water limit of 0.001 mg per litre. Monitoring along the food chain gives 0.06 mg per kg in plankton, 0.9 mg per kg in small fish, 6.2 mg per kg in large carnivorous fish and 21 mg per kg in otter liver, all wet weight.
917 words, about 5 min