A time to sequence.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M V Olson.
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Clone-based genome maps can be constructed by determining the presence or absence of sequence-tagged sites (STSs) in a redundant collection of yeast artificial chromosome clones (YACs). While STS-content mapping has proven to be an effective means of ordering clone ends and STSs along chromosomes, the exact physical map positions of these landmarks are not determined. This fundamental weakness can be overcome by RecA-assisted restriction endonuclease (RARE) cleavage, a method that exploits the binding specificity on duplex DNA of a RecA-protein-oligodeoxynucleotide complex to enhance the cleavage specificity of a restriction endonuclease. This technique allows selective cleavage at individual members of a large set of restriction sites. RARE-cleavage mapping was applied to a contig comprising 5 overlapping YACs spanning 580 kb on human chromosome 14. An STS-content map comprising 10 YAC-end specific STSs and one internal STS was constructed. RARE cleavage was performed on 2 YACs that span the entire contig at the EcoRI sites defining the vector-insert junctions of all 5 YACs, as well as at a HhaI site within the STS that was initially used to screen the YAC library for the clones in the contig. The sizes of the RARE-cleavage fragments were measured by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and used to convert the STS-content map into a true physical map that indicates precise positions of clone ends and STSs.
The Human Genome Project in the United States is now well underway. Its programmatic direction was largely set by a National Research Council report issued in 1988. The broad framework supplied by this report has survived almost unchanged despite an upheaval in the technology of genome analysis. This upheaval has primarily affected physical and genetic mapping, the two dominant activities in the present phase of the project. Advances in mapping techniques have allowed good progress toward the specific goals of the project and are also providing strong corollary benefits throughout biomedical research. Actual DNA sequencing of the genomes of the human and model organisms is still at an early stage. There has been little progress in the intrinsic efficiency of DNA-sequence determination. However, refinements in experimental protocols, instrumentation, and project management have made it practical to acquire sequence data on an enlarged scale. It is also increasingly apparent that DNA-sequence data provide a potent means of relating knowledge gained from the study of model organisms to human biology. There is as yet little indication that the infusion of technology from outside biology into the Human Genome Project has been effectively stimulated. Opportunities in this area remain large, posing substantial technical and policy challenges.
DNA of yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) was prepared for microinjection by separation from most of the natural yeast chromosomes on a pulsed-field gel, treatment with agarase, and centrifugation. A salt concentration of 100 mM NaCl was necessary to protect the DNA from shear during these procedures. Injection of a 590-kb YAC, yGART2, into Chinese hamster ovary cells gave rise to cells expressing the 40-kb human GART gene carried on the YAC. Nine of 12 cell lines analyzed contained an intact stretch of at least 110 kb of YAC DNA surrounding the GART gene, and one cell line contained at least 480 kb, but not the entire 590 kb, intact. Mouse L A-9 cells were similarly injected with DNA of a 230-kb YAC containing the human beta-globin gene cluster and a mammalian selectable marker. Seven of 10 of the resulting cell lines contained both YAC vector arms plus the intact 140-kb SfiI fragment spanning the beta-globin gene. Three cell lines were analyzed by RecA-assisted restriction endonuclease (RARE) cleavage and found to contain the entire intact 210-kb YAC insert. Introduction of similarly prepared DNA into mammalian cells by lipofection gave rise to cell lines with multiple YAC fragments that were generally shorter than the YAC fragments found in microinjected cell lines. The results show that microinjection of gel-purified YAC DNA into mammalian cells is an efficient method of transferring DNA fragments several hundred kilobase pairs in size into mammalian cells.
Physical maps of the six smallest chromosomes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are presented. In order of increasing size, they are chromosomes I, VI, III, IX, V and VIII, comprising 2.49 megabase pairs of DNA. The maps are based on the analysis of an overlapping set of lambda and cosmid clones. Overlaps between adjacent clones were recognized by shared restriction fragments produced by the combined action of EcoRI and HindIII. The average spacing between mapped cleavage sites is 2.6 kb. Five of the six chromosomes were mapped from end to end without discontinuities; a single internal gap remains in the map of chromosome IX. The reported maps span an estimated 97% of the DNA on the six chromosomes; nearly all the missing segments are telomeric. The maps are fully cross-correlated with the previously published SfiI/NotI map of the yeast genome by A. J. Link and M. V. Olson. They have also been cross-correlated with the yeast genetic map at 51 loci.
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A human yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) library was screened by polymerase chain reaction with oligonucleotide primers defined for DNA sequences of the BCR gene and the protooncogenes c-raf-1, c-fms, and c-erbB-2. Alu-PCR-generated human DNA sequences were obtained from the respective YAC clones and used for fluorescence in situ hybridization experiments under suppression conditions. After chromosomal in situ suppression hybridization to GTG-banded human prometaphase chromosomes, seven of nine initially isolated YAC clones yielded strong signals exclusively in the chromosome bands containing the respective genes. Two clones yielded additional signals on other chromosomes and were excluded from further tests. The band-specific YACs were successfully applied to visualize specific structural chromosome aberrations in peripheral blood cells from patients with myelodysplasia exhibiting del(5)(q13q34), chronic myeloid leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia with t(9;22)(q34;q11), acute promyelocytic leukemia (M3) with t(15;17)(q22;q21), and in a cell line established from a proband with the constitutional translocation t(3;8)(p14.2;q24). In addition to the analysis of metaphase spreads, we demonstrate the particular usefulness of these YAC clones in combination with whole chromosome painting to analyze specific chromosome aberrations directly in the interphase nucleus.
The systematic screening of yeast artificial-chromosome (YAC) libraries is the limiting step in many physical mapping projects. To improve the screening throughput for a human YAC library, we designed an automatable strategy to identify YAC clones containing a specific segment of DNA. Our approach combines amplification of the target sequence from pooled YAC DNA by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with detection of the sequence by an ELISA-based oligonucleotide-ligation assay (OLA). The PCR-OLA approach eliminates the use of radioactive isotopes and gel electrophoresis, two of the major obstacles to automated YAC screening. Furthermore, the use of the OLA to test for the presence of sequences internal to PCR primers provides an additional level of sensitivity and specificity in comparison to methods that rely solely on the PCR.
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Two Yeast Artificial Chromosomes (YACs) were isolated each with a full-length copy of the human gene that encodes the trifunctional protein containing phosphoribosylglycinamide synthetase (GARS), phosphoribosylglycinamide formyltransferase (GART) and phosphoribosylaminoimidazole synthetase (AIRS). The YACs were characterized by restriction mapping and by in situ hybridization of cosmid subclones containing the YAC ends to human metaphase chromosomes. One of the YACs contains co-cloned non-contiguous DNA whereas the other appears to have a single 600 kbp insert from 21q22.1, the location of the GART gene. A restriction map of the gene was obtained from two cosmid subclones which together span the 40 kb gene. The gene is functional when YAC DNA is transferred into GARS- or GARS-and-AIRS-deficient Chinese Hamster Ovary cells. The gene transfer was carried out both by lipofection using purified yeast DNA and by fusion between yeast spheroplasts and the hamster cells. Restriction analysis of DNA from cell lines whose purine auxotrophy was complemented by the YAC showed that with either method a complete and unrearranged copy of the gene can be transferred. The majority of the fusion cell lines appear to contain at least 80% of the YAC.
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Basic to the development of long-range physical maps of DNA are the detection and localization of landmarks within recombinant clones. Sequence-tagged sites (STSs), which are short stretches of DNA that can be specifically detected by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), can be used as such landmarks. Our interest is to construct physical maps of whole human chromosomes by localizing STSs within yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) clones. Here we describe a generalized strategy for the systematic generation of large numbers of STSs specific for human chromosome 7. These STSs can be detected by PCR assays developed following the sequencing of anonymous pieces of chromosome 7 DNA, which was derived from flow-sorted chromosomes or from lambda clones made from DNA of a human-hamster hybrid cell line. Our approach for STS generation is tailored for the development of PCR assays capable of screening a large YAC library. In this study, we report the generation of 100 new STSs specific to human chromosome 7.
Methods for the construction of yeast artificial-chromosome (YAC) clones have been designed to isolate single, large (100-1000 kb) segments of chromosomal DNA. It is apparent from early experience with this cloning system that the major artifact in YAC clones involves the formation of YACs that contain two or more unrelated pieces of DNA. Such "chimeric" YACs are not easily recognized, particularly in libraries constructed from the total DNA of an organism. In some libraries, they have been found to constitute a major fraction of the clones. Here we discuss some of our experiences with chimeric YACs, with particular emphasis on the approaches that we have employed to detect such aberrant clones. In addition, we describe the detailed characterization of one chimeric YAC isolated from a library prepared from total human DNA. The organization of this clone indicates that it formed by in vivo recombination, presumably in yeast, between two Alu sequences located on unrelated segments of human DNA.
A 680-kb yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) that contains a functional copy of the human hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) gene has been isolated. This YAC, yHPRT, and another YAC, yXY837, which contains the 3' end of the HPRT gene, have been mapped with restriction enzymes that cleave human DNA infrequently. The HPRT gene lies near the center of yHPRT. Fusion of yHPRT-containing yeast spheroplasts with mouse L A-9 cells, which are HPRT-negative, gives rise to HPRT-positive colonies. These colonies contain the human HPRT gene and express human HPRT mRNA. Fusion of yeast with mammalian cells is an efficient way of testing the integrity and functionality of human DNA contained in YACs.
A physical map of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome is presented. It was derived by mapping the sites for two restriction endonucleases, SfiI and NotI, each of which recognizes an 8-bp sequence. DNA-DNA hybridization probes for genetically mapped genes and probes that span particular SfiI and NotI sites were used to construct a map that contains 131 physical landmarks--32 chromosome ends, 61 SfiI sites and 38 NotI sites. These landmarks are distributed throughout the non-rDNA component of the yeast genome, which comprises 12.5 Mbp of DNA. The physical map suggests that those genes that can be detected and mapped by standard genetic methods are distributed rather uniformly over the full physical extent of the yeast genome. The map has immediate applications to the mapping of genes for which single-copy DNA-DNA hybridization probes are available.
A general strategy for cloning and mapping large regions of human DNA with yeast artificial chromosomes (YAC's) is described. It relies on the use of the polymerase chain reaction to detect DNA landmarks called sequence-tagged sites (STS's) within YAC clones. The method was applied to the region of human chromosome 7 containing the cystic fibrosis (CF) gene. Thirty YAC clones from this region were analyzed, and a contig map that spans more than 1,500,000 base pairs was assembled. Individual YAC's as large as 790 kilobase pairs and containing the entire CF gene were constructed in vivo by meiotic recombination in yeast between pairs of overlapping YAC's.
A strategy for using processed, digitized images of one-dimensional electrophoretic gels to facilitate the analysis of large sets of overlapping clones is described. The images are acquired from fluorescently stained gels or from transilluminated gel photographs using a cooled, solid-state charge-coupled device camera. By employing sets of bands in the size-standard lanes as reference points, all the gel images are spatially normalized to a common reference template. After normalization, lane images from different gels can be compared as though the gels had been electrophoresed under identical, uniform-field conditions. Applications of this procedure to the analysis of a large set of overlapping lambda clones from chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and to the estimation of fragment sizes are illustrated.