Random Shear BAC Library Enables Gap Closing in the Arabidopsis Genome

The Arabidopsis thaliana genome was first sequenced in 2000. The reference was built using multiple sub cloning methods paired with Sanger sequencing and has been considered a gold standard plant genome for many years.  However, there are numerous gaps in the Arabidopsis reference genome due to inherent biases in the techniques and the repetitive nature of these areas.  New technologies such as third generation single molecule sequencing merged with techniques that do not have the same biases allow us to better sequence and assemble these previously difficult or impossible genomic locations.  Lucigen Corporation (WI) created a randomly sheared Arabidopsis BAC library and screened it for the flanking sequences near known gaps in the reference.  These BACs were then sequenced using Illumina short reads and Pacific Biosciences long reads.  This approach has enabled us to close or extend into many of the known gaps and provide resolution and annotation in these highly repetitive regions.