Construction of a Bacterial Artificial Chromosome Library from the Inshore Hagfish, Eptatretus Burgeri: A Resource for the Analysis of the Agnathan Genome

The jawless fish occupy an important phylogenetic position for understanding the evolution of body plans, the origin of adaptive immunity and genome evolution in chordates. We describe here the construction of a large-insert bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library from the inshore hagfish, Eptatretus burgeri. The BAC library contains 93,978 clones with an average insert size of 100 kb and is estimated to represent threefold genome-equivalent coverage. The library was organized in three-dimensional pools to facilitate screening by PCR. We have screened this library by PCR and isolated several BAC clones; the average number of positive clones was compatible with the estimated genome coverage of the library. This BAC library, constructed for the first time from the jawless fish, should serve as a useful resource for the scientific community.