Overview of strategies for screening YAC libraries and analyzing YAC clones.

This unit provides an introduction to the use of yeast artificial chromosome-bearing yeast clones (hereafter referred to as YAC clones) in genome analysis. It describes criteria for designing a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to be used in screening a YAC core library and discusses the rationale for verification and characterization of YAC clones obtained from these core laboratories. Protocols for maintaining YAC clones, analyzing YAC insert structure, preparing YAC DNA, and subcloning YAC inserts into other vectors are presented elsewhere in this volume.