A bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) is a DNA construct, based on a functional fertility plasmid (or F-plasmid), used for transforming and cloning in bacteria, usually E.
[1][2][3] F-plasmids play a crucial role because they contain partition genes that promote the even distribution of plasmids after bacterial cell division.
BACs are preferred for these kind of genetic studies because they accommodate much larger sequences without the risk of rearrangement, and are therefore more stable than other types of cloning vectors.
The infectious property of these BACs has made the study of many viruses such as the herpesviruses, poxviruses and coronaviruses more accessible.
[5][6][7] Molecular studies of these viruses can now be achieved using genetic approaches to mutate the BAC while it resides in bacteria.