A BACTERIAL ARTIFICIAL CHROMOSOME-BASED FRAMEWORK CONTIG MAP OF HUMAN-CHROMOSOME 22Q

We have constructed a physical map of human chromosome 22q using bacte rial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones, The map consists of 613 chrom osome 22-specific BAC clones that have been localized and assembled in to contigs using 452 landmarks, 346 of which were previously ordered a nd mapped to specific regions of the q arm of the chromosome by means of chromosome 22-specific yeast artificial chromosome clones, The BAC- based map provides immediate access to clones that are stable and conv enient for direct genome analysis, The approach to rapidly developing marker-specific BAC contigs is relatively straightforward and can be e xtended to generate scaffold BAC contig maps of the rest of the chromo somes. These contigs will provide substrates for sequencing the entire human genome. We discuss how to efficiently close contig gaps using t he end sequences of BAC clone inserts.