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07:48
A Method for Lineage Tracing of Corneal Cells Using Multi-color Fluorescent Reporter Mice
Published on: December 18, 2015
Genomic variability within an organism exposes its cell lineage tree
Dan Frumkin1, Adam Wasserstrom, Shai Kaplan
1Department of Biological Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Plos Computational Biology
|November 2, 2005
Summary
Somatic mutations in microsatellites (MSs) can precisely reconstruct an organism's cell lineage tree. This method enables error-free reconstruction of human and mouse cell lineage trees, even with limited MS analysis in unstable genomes.
Area of Science:
- Developmental biology
- Genetics
- Bioinformatics
Background:
- Reconstructing cell lineage trees is crucial for understanding organism development but challenging in complex organisms.
- Previous methods were limited to simple organisms like Caenorhabditis elegans.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel method for reconstructing cell lineage trees in higher organisms using somatic mutations.
- To demonstrate the feasibility and precision of this approach for biological and medical research.
Main Methods:
- Mathematical analysis of microsatellite (MS) mutation rates during normal development.
- Utilizing somatic MS mutation data to infer cell lineage relationships.
- Automated procedure for reconstructing cell lineage trees.
Main Results:
- Somatic MS mutations implicitly encode precise cell lineage tree information.
- High probability (>99.95%) of error-free reconstruction for human and mouse embryos (up to 40 divisions).
- Feasible reconstruction of partial lineage trees using a few hundred MSs in genetically unstable organisms.
Conclusions:
- Somatic mutations offer a powerful tool for reconstructing complex cell lineage trees.
- This approach could form the basis of a "Human Cell Lineage Project" to address fundamental biological questions.
- The automated procedure facilitates future research in developmental biology, immunology, and disease research.
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