Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026

De Novo Generation of Somatic Stem Cells by YAP/TAZ
Published on: May 7, 2018
Stem cell chronicles: autobiographies within genomes
1Department of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA. dshibata@usc.edu
Abstract:
Human stem cell studies are difficult because many of the powerful experimental approaches that mark and follow stem cells and their progeny are impractical. Moreover, humans are long-lived, and it would literally take a lifetime to follow stem cell fates prospectively. Considering these hurdles, an ideal method would not require prior experimental manipulations but still allow "observations" of human stem cells from birth to death. The purpose of this review is to outline how histories or fates are likely to be surreptitiously recorded within somatic cell genomes by replication errors (molecular clock hypothesis). It may be possible to reconstruct stem cell lifetimes by measuring the random somatic changes that accumulate within their genomes, or the genomes of their more-easy-to-identify progeny.
Related Concept Videos
Lineage Commitment
Somatic to iPS Cell Reprogramming
Forced Transdifferentiation
Artificial transdifferentiation occurs...
Chromatin Modification in iPS Cells
Compact chromatin makes reprogramming difficult. Enzymes, such as histone demethylases and acetyltransferases, are often added during reprogramming to loosen the chromatin, making the DNA more accessible to transcription factors. Molecules that inhibit histone...
Multipotency of Hematopoietic Stem Cells
Adult Stem Cells

