where P is the probability that any sequence of interest is included in a clone bank composed of N clones, each containing a fraction, f, of the total genome.
| This program calculates the number of genomic clones you need to screen to ''cover'' a library using the Clark-Carbon equation. |
| Background: Estimating the total number of clones needed in a
DNA library
to obtain one or more clones of a desired sequence is essential to
planning a cloning strategy. A
clone bank prepared from either genomic DNA or cDNA is the cumulative
result of numerous nearly random events, thus it is never complete
in an absolute sense. However, a library may be considered sufficiently
complete when it has a high probability of containing any particlar
sequence
present in the DNA used to prepare it. The probability equation which
defines
the number is
where P is the probability that any sequence of interest is included in a clone bank composed of N clones, each containing a fraction, f, of the total genome. |
| Genome size (in MB) | 12.3 for yeast, 3000 for human |
| Average insert size (in kb) | 4 kb is reasonable for plasmid libraries. |
| Probability (in %) | 95% is reasonable |