DOI: 10.1051/gse:2001132

Genet. Sel. Evol. 33 (2001) 543-548

Construction and characterization of a bovine BAC library with four genome-equivalent coverage

André Eggen^a, Mathieu Gautier^a, Alain Billaut^b, Élisabeth Petit^a, Hélène Hayes^a, Pascal Laurent^a, Catherine Urban^c, Martha Pfister-Genskow^d, Ken Eilertsen^d and Michael D. Bishop<sup>d

a</sup>  Laboratoire de génétique biochimique et de cytogénétique, Département de génétique animale, Institut national de la recherche agronomique, 78352 Jouy-en-Josas Cedex, France
^b  Molecular Engines Laboratories, 20 rue Bouvier, 75011 Paris, France
^c  Fondation Jean Dausset, Centre d'étude du polymorphisme humain, 27 rue Juliette Dodu, 75010 Paris, France
^d  Infigen Inc, 1825 Infinity Drive, DeForest, WI 53532, USA

(Received 21 March 2001; accepted 16 May 2001)

Abstract
A bovine artificial chromosome (BAC) library of 105 984 clones has been constructed in the vector pBeloBAC11 and organized in 3-dimension pools and high density membranes for screening by PCR and hybridization. The average insert size, determined after analysis of 388 clones, was estimated at 120 kb corresponding to a four genome coverage. Given the fact that a male was used to construct the library, the probability of finding any given autosomal and X or Y locus is respectively 0.98 and 0.86. The library was screened for 164 microsatellite markers and an average of 3.9 superpools was positive for each PCR system. None of the 50 or so BAC clones analysed by FISH was chimeric. This BAC library increases the international genome coverage for cattle to around 28 genome equivalents and extends the coverage of the ruminant genomes available at the Inra resource center to 15 genome equivalents.

Key words: bovine / BAC library / mapping

Correspondence and reprints: André Eggen E-mail: eggen@jouy.inra.fr

© INRA, EDP Sciences 2001