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Home >> Plant Biotechnology and Genomics >>Construction of Molecular Maps and Synteny (Collinearity) >>Intergrated Physical Map of Arabidopsis Thaliana

Integrated physical map of Arabidopsis thaliana
During 1990-2000, several genome-wide physical maps of Arabidopsis thalianagenome were developed using large-­insert YACs or BACs. These maps were also used for working out the whole genome sequences, which were published in December, 2000. The whole genome sequence, however, still had gaps in the heterochromatic and centromeric regions. In order to fill up these gaps, a whole-genome integrated physical map in Arabidopsiswas prepared and published towards the end of the year 2001. For preparing this latest physical map, a new BIBAC library was prepared, which complemented the BAC libraries used earlier for mapping.

As many as 10,752 BAC and BIBAC clones were used for restriction fingerprinting. Based on fingerprints, the BAC/BIBAC clones were assembled into 196 contigs, which included one contig belonging to chloroplast DNA, another contig belonging to mitochondrial DNA and the remaining 194 clones belonging to >126Mb of the nuclear genome. The physical map thus prepared was integrated with the available maps based on BACs and whole genome sequence. Approximately 95% of the new BAC/BIBAC contigs used for integrated physical maps were consistent with contigs of the existing physical and sequence maps, both in clone content and clone order, but 5% of contigs differed.

The accuracy of the above integrated physical map was also checked using DNA markers. The large-insert clones earlier used for mapping were available in BAC vectors, which required subcloning before they could be used in transformation experiments for functional analysis. This problem was largely overcome through the use of a large number of BIBAC clones in the above integrated map, which being binary in nature, could be directly (without subcloning) used in transformation studies for functional analysis

Sequence analysis of Arabidopsisgenome had earlier suggested that it contained 25,498 genes. However, the functions of >50% these genes remained to be characterized experimentally, a goal that is planned to be achieved by 2010 through the Arabidopsis"2010 Project" (consult next chapter for details). This work will be greatly facilitated by the availability of the above integrated whole-genome physical map.

 

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