Plant & Animal Genome IX Conference

Poster: Large Insert Libraries, Gene Isolation, Etc.
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SEVENTY LARGE-INSERT, ORDERED AND HIGH-QUALITY BAC AND BIBAC LIBRARIES FOR ACCELERATED PLANT AND ANIMAL GENOMICS RESEARCH

Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, 2474 TAMUS, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2474, USA

Large-insert BAC and BIBAC libraries are essential for modern genomics research. In the past few years, we have developed a series of technologies for BAC and BIBAC library generation and genome physical mapping, and generated a number of large-insert BAC and BIBAC libraries and BAC/BIBAC-based physical maps of agricultural genomes. To facilitate use of these libraries and physical maps, we have established the GENEfinder Genomic Resources (Texas A&M BAC Center). Currently, the Resources have > 70 large-insert, ordered BAC and BIBAC libraries for different plant and animal species, the largest collection of BAC and BIBAC libraries in the world. These libraries have average insert sizes from 100 to 200 kb. In 2000, we developed 14 new BAC and BIBAC libraries, all of which have average insert sizes of 150 kb or larger. About 1/3 of the libraries were constructed in plant transformation-competent binary vectors, which not only can be used in genomics research as conventional BACs, but also can be directly transformed into plants via Agrobacterium for positional gene cloning and gene engineering. Furthermore, 25 of these libraries have been or are being utilized in the genome-wide physical mapping of Arabidopsis, indica rice, japonica rice, soybean, chicken, sorghum, wheat, cotton and maize. All of these BAC and BIBAC libraries have been made available by the GENEfinder Genomic Resources to the research community in the forms of complete libraries, high-density colony filters, contigs and individual clones. These libraries and physical maps can be readily accessed at our web site: http://hbz.tamu.edu/.