Building a lineage from single cells: genetic techniques for cell lineage tracking.

Nat Rev Genet
Authors
Abstract

Resolving lineage relationships between cells in an organism is a fundamental interest of developmental biology. Furthermore, investigating lineage can drive understanding of pathological states, including cancer, as well as understanding of developmental pathways that are amenable to manipulation by directed differentiation. Although lineage tracking through the injection of retroviral libraries has long been the state of the art, a recent explosion of methodological advances in exogenous labelling and single-cell sequencing have enabled lineage tracking at larger scales, in more detail, and in a wider range of species than was previously considered possible. In this Review, we discuss these techniques for cell lineage tracking, with attention both to those that trace lineage forwards from experimental labelling, and those that trace backwards across the life history of an organism.

Year of Publication
2017
Journal
Nat Rev Genet
Volume
18
Issue
4
Pages
230-244
Date Published
2017 Apr
ISSN
1471-0064
DOI
10.1038/nrg.2016.159
PubMed ID
28111472
Links
Grant list
T32 MH020017 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States