10 Differences between BAC and YAC Vector (BAC vs YAC)

A vector is any DNA molecule that has the ability to replicate inside the host to which the desired gene has integrated for cloning.

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Vectors include plasmids, bacteriophages, cosmids, BAC, YAC, yeast vectors, shuttle vectors etc.

YAC and BAC vectors are two genetically engineered artificial vectors designed to clone large DNA fragments. Now both these vectors are very much modified based on requirements. Let’s differentiate the basic YAC and BAC vector in this post.

YAC	BAC
YAC vector means Yeast Artificial Chromosome vectors.	BAC vector means Bacterial Artificial Chromosome Vectors.
Developed by Burke and Olson in 1987	Developed  Melsimon et al 1992
Can replicate inside yeast Used to clone DNA sequences in yeast cells	Can replicate inside bacteria used to clone DNA sequences in bacterial cells
Basic Components of YAC vector ARS (Autonomously Replicating Sequence)  – Ori; origin of replication for Yeast CEN (Centromeric) –yeast centromere for  movement of YAC vectors  to daughter cells 2 TEL (Telomeric) -Telomeric region for behaving as yeast chromosome on linearization AmpR– Selectable marker genes for selection of transformed cells BamHI and EcoRI restriction sites for inserting our gene of interest	Basic components of BAC vector(pBAC108L first developed BAC vector) OriS – ori for bacteria repE – initiation & assembly of the replication  complex  parA and parB – movement of BAC to daughter cells Selectable marker –Chloramphenicol Resistance for selection of transformed cells T7 and SP6 – Promote transcription of insert gene
Its construction is based on regions of yeast chromosome like ARS	BAC is a DNA construct, based on functional fertility plasmid (or F-plasmid), of  E. coli.
Linear vector inside yeast cell with 2 telomeric ends  just functions as yeast chromosomes without disturbing original chromosomes	Circular vector inside the bacterium
Clone DNA fragments larger than 100 kb and up to 3,000 kb	Insert size is 150–350 kb.
It is used for physical mapping and sequencing of genomes. YAC libraries of human and Caenorhabditis elegans and many genomes First used in Human genome project later shifted to BAC vectors due to stability issues with YAC	It is used for physical mapping and sequencing of genomes. Used in HGP and in physical genetic maps of including Mus musculus, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Homo sapiens.
Advantage of YAC: large insert size	Advantage of BAC: More stable than YACs, and easy to manipulate compared to YAC
Disadvantage: Less stable than BAC and produce chimeric effects (deletion and inversion of cloned sequences)	Disadvantage: Small insert size compared to YAC Reference: Bajpai B. (2013). High Capacity Vectors. Advances in Biotechnology, 1–10.