A MAIZE BAC LIBRARY FROM THE EUROPEAN FLINT LINE "F2"

IACR-Long Ashton, University of Bristol, BS41 9AF United Kingdom

High quality large insert libraries are an essential pre-requisite for gene isolation strategies based on positional cloning and/or chromosome landing strategies. As part of the European Map Maize program (see Maize Workshop talk by Edwards et al.), we are endeavouring through saturation mapping of selected target regions to `land' with markers flanking the gene of interest on individual large insert genomic clones. Maize libraries available to date include a YAC library from the dent line LH82 and a BAC library from the dent inbred line B73. No large insert libraries from flint lines are under construction to our knowledge. Recent developments in BAC cloning methods suggest that average insert sizes of >200 kb can be routinely achieved. We are implementing these methods with the object of providing to the maize community a new high quality library with an average insert size in excess of 200kb in order to significantly increase our chances of `landing' on a single clone. Because we are using a flint genotype, we believe that this library will be of great interest to researchers studying typically flint traits, such as early maturity. We will report progress on the construction of this library.