Plant & Animal Genomes XI Conference

January 11-15, 2003
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Poster: Large Insert Libraries
            

BAC LIBRARY CONSTRUCTION FOR EVOLUTIONARY AND COMPARATIVE GENOMICS

Arizona Genomics Institute, Department of Plant Sciences, 303 Forbes Building, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

The Arizona Genomics Institute (AGI) BAC library team is currently involved in three Federal agency-funded projects to make BAC libraries for evolutionary and comparative genomics studies: 1) BAC libraries from animals for the NIH “Healthy People 2010” program; 2) BAC libraries from representative organisms on the “Tree of Life” from algae to non flowering land plants to flowering land plants for the NSF “Green Plant” project (Dr. Dina Mandoli of the University of Washington is the leading PI) and 3) BAC libraries from wild rice species for a NSF rice genomics project (Dr. Rod Wing is the PI). For the NIH project, we are currently constructing BAC libraries for zebra finch, wallaby and shrew. BAC library construction from birds is known to be difficult, as described for that from the chicken (Crooijmans et al, 2000, Mamm Genome 11:360-363), because the cloning of trapped small genomic DNA fragments reduces the average insert size. We are optimizing conditions for the construction of a BAC library from the zebra finch. For the Green Plant BAC project, we are currently constructing BAC libraries from Angiopteris evecta and Lycopodium lucidulum with other species in the pipeline. Finally for the Rice BAC project, we will collect samples from the International Rice Research Institute this November and prepare the megabase size DNA for library construction. Progress, and difficulties overcome, will be presented.