A highly redundant BAC library of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar): an important tool for salmon projects
Date
2005-04-04
Authors
Thorsen, Jim
Zhu, Baoli
Frengen, Eirik
Osoegawa, Kazutoyo
de Jong, Pieter J
Koop, Ben F
Davidson, William S
Høyheim, Bjørn
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
Background: As farming of Atlantic salmon is growing as an aquaculture enterprise, the need to identify the
genomic mechanisms for specific traits is becoming more important in breeding and management of the animal.
Traits of importance might be related to growth, disease resistance, food conversion efficiency, color or taste.
To identify genomic regions responsible for specific traits, genomic large insert libraries have previously proven
to be of crucial importance. These large insert libraries can be screened using gene or genetic markers in order
to identify and map regions of interest. Furthermore, large-scale mapping can utilize highly redundant libraries in
genome projects, and hence provide valuable data on the genome structure.
Results: Here we report the construction and characterization of a highly redundant bacterial artificial
chromosome (BAC) library constructed from a Norwegian aquaculture strain male of Atlantic salmon (Salmo
salar). The library consists of a total number of 305 557 clones, in which approximately 299 000 are recombinants.
The average insert size of the library is 188 kbp, representing 18-fold genome coverage. High-density filters each
consisting of 18 432 clones spotted in duplicates have been produced for hybridization screening, and are publicly
available [1]. To characterize the library, 15 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) derived overgos and 12 oligo
sequences derived from microsatellite markers were used in hybridization screening of the complete BAC library.
Secondary hybridizations with individual probes were performed for the clones detected. The BACs positive for
the EST probes were fingerprinted and mapped into contigs, yielding an average of 3 contigs for each probe.
Clones identified using genomic probes were PCR verified using microsatellite specific primers.
Conclusion: Identification of genes and genomic regions of interest is greatly aided by the availability of the
CHORI-214 Atlantic salmon BAC library. We have demonstrated the library's ability to identify specific genes and
genetic markers using hybridization, PCR and fingerprinting experiments. In addition, multiple fingerprinting
contigs indicated a pseudo-tetraploidity of the Atlantic salmon genome. The highly redundant CHORI-214 BAC
library is expected to be an important resource for mapping and sequencing of the Atlantic salmon genome
Description
BioMed Central
Keywords
Citation
Thorsen J. et al. A highly redundant BAC library of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) BMC Genomics 2005, 6 :50