Whole-organism lineage tracing by combinatorial and cumulative genome editing

INTRODUCTION The developmental path by which a fertilized egg gives rise to the cells of a multicellular organism is termed the cell lineage. In 1983, John Sulston and colleagues documented the invariant cell lineage of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as determined by visual observation. However, tracing cell lineage in nearly all other multicellular organisms is vastly more challenging. Contemporary methods rely on genetic markers or somatic mutations, but these approaches have limitations that preclude their application at the level of a whole, complex organism. RATIONALE For a technology to comprehensively trace cell lineages in a complex multicellular system, it must uniquely and incrementally mark…

• AC
  American Cancer Society
• PG
  Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Award: DP1HG007811