According to a new study, we may be possible to track the cell lineage in a living organism by making use of CRISPR gene editing tool to create a unique genetic "barcode". Although there are several different ways of tracing cell lineage, each of the methods has limitations. For example, we can use dye to track the production of daughter cells, but dye can't provide clues for the relationship among progeny cells.
Aaron McKenna and colleagues developed a method which is called GESTALT. It is used to trace the genome editing of the synthesis of target array of cell lines. This method introduces a unique pattern of mutations into the genome barcode. The DNA sequence of mutation barcode in the daughter cells is used to reconstruct the relationship among cell lines. McKenna and other researchers demonstrated the efficacy of this technology in cell culture and live zebrafish. After introducing the barcode in embryonic zebrafish and analyzing different tissues in their adulthood, the researchers found that only a few embryonic progenitor cells produced majority of the cells which composed of the adult organs. For example, they only observed in 1,138 blood cell gene variants; there were only five blood cells that had developed more than 98% in a four-month-old zebrafish.
The authors noted that this new technology can be used to make future analysis of normal development of tracking more complex multicellular process. It can also be used to identify the origin of the tumor cells and metastasis. This development can accelerate our understanding of cellular processes.
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