%0 Journal Article %T De novo assembly of potential linear artificial chromosome constructs capped with expansive telomeric repeats %A Li Lin %A Dal-Hoe Koo %A Wenli Zhang %A Joseph St Peter %A Jiming Jiang %J Plant Methods %D 2011 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1746-4811-7-10 %X We report a novel approach to assemble AC constructs that are capped with long telomeric DNA. We designed a plasmid vector that can be combined with a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone containing centromeric DNA sequences from a target plant species. The recombined clone can be used as the centromeric DNA backbone of the AC constructs. We also developed two plasmid vectors containing short arrays of plant telomeric DNA. These vectors can be used to generate expanded arrays of telomeric DNA up to several kilobases. The centromeric DNA backbone can be ligated with the telomeric DNA fragments to generate AC constructs consisting of a large centromeric DNA fragment capped with expansive telomeric DNA at both ends.We successfully developed a procedure that circumvents the problem of cloning and maintaining long arrays of telomeric DNA sequences that are not stable in E. coli. Our procedure allows development of AC constructs in different eukaryotic species that are capped with long and designed sizes of telomeric DNA fragments.Artificial chromosomes (ACs) were first developed in budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae through the cloning and assembling of three DNA elements: the centromere, telomeres and origins of replication [1]. The success of yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) was a driving force for the development of artificial chromosomes in multicellular eukaryotes. Human artificial chromosomes (HACs) and plant artificial chromosomes (PACs) can not only provide important tools for studying chromosome structure and function, but also hold great potential as next generation vectors for human gene therapy and plant genetic engineering [2-4]. Development of both HACs and PACs have been reported after a decade long effort involving many laboratories [5-9].Several different techniques have been developed to assemble AC constructs in mammalian and plant species. Most of these techniques have focused on combining centromeric DNA with telomeric DNA fragments. Or %U http://www.plantmethods.com/content/7/1/10