Yeast artificial chromosomes

Yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) are synthetic double stranded linear constructs containing the elements necessary for replication in yeast. These elements are:

• an autonomous replication sequence (ARS)
• a centromere
• a telomeric sequence at each end

Typically the chromosome also contains a selection marker such as Lys2 or Ura3.

A common tool for constructing YACs is a shuttle plasmid such as pYAC4 which replicates in E. coli, has a multiple cloning site, and a pair of telomeres which can be cleaved to form a linear fragment. Available as an E.coli plasmid ATCC 67379, sequence at U01086. Yeast host AB1380 is available as ATCC 204682.

Minimal size for a YAC is between 50kb and 100kb, while maximum sizes are 1Mb to 3Mb.

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