A FOSMID-BASED GENOMIC MAP AND IDENTIFICATION OF 474 GENES OF THE HYPERTHERMOPHILIC ARCHAEON PYROBACULUM-AEROPHILUM

We have constructed a physical map of the approximately 1.7-Mb genome of the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrobaculum aerophilum. Derived from a 12x coverage genomic fosmid library with an average insert size of 36 Kb, the map consists of a Single circular contig of 96 overlapping fosmid clones with 211 markers ordered along them. One hundred of the sequence markers have strong similarities to known genes. Many overlap s were also checked using restriction fingerprint analysis. This map i s an important step in the elucidation of the sequence of the entire g enome of Pyrobaculum aerophilum. To this end we have determined more t han 95% of the genome with 15000 random sequences. Each sequence has b een screened against the public sequence databases to identify similar ities to known genes. We report here a list of the 474 putative genes we have identified.