Artificial Chromosomes, Yeast

The ability of short G-rich sequences from the ends of Tetrahymena chromosomes to allow the propagation of linear DNA molecules in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae led not only to a Nobel Prize, but to a wide variety of studies of chromosome biology and mechanics of replication and segregation as well as stability, and to the ability to clone large segments of DNA from other organisms which had been limited in size previously. Although advances in long read sequencing have replaced the need for large clones, yeast artificial chromosomes still have their place in basic research as well as in genomics of other organisms and in synthetic biology.