Tracing cell history in zebrafish

Abstract

Cell Lineage Tracing Following the pattern of cell divisions and specializations as a fertilized egg develops into a complex organism is essential to understanding organismal development. McKenna et al. developed a method termed GESTALT that introduces unique patterns of mutations into a genomic barcode during zebrafish development. The DNA sequence of mutated barcodes in different cells is then used to reconstruct cell lineage relationships. When applied to zebrafish, this cell lineage tracing method demonstrates that most adult organs are dominated by the progeny of a few ancestral cells. In future analyses, this method can be applied to other complex multicellular organisms to study cell lineage in normal development, as well as to identify the cellular origin of tumors and metastases. Science , this issue p. [462][1] [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/353/6298/462.full