Molecular circuits for genomic recording of cellular events

Advances in precise genome editing are enabling genomic recordings of cellular events. Since the initial demonstration of CRISPR-based genome editing, the field of genomic recording has witnessed key strides in lineage recording, where clonal lineage relationships among cells are indirectly recorded as synthetic mutations. However, methods for directly recording and reconstructing past cellular events are still limited, and their potential for revealing new insights into cell fate decisions has yet to be realized. The field needs new sensing modules and genetic circuit architectures that faithfully encode past cellular states into genomic DNA recordings to achieve such goals. Here we review recently developed strategies to construct diverse sensors and explore how emerging synthetic biology tools may help to build molecular circuits for genomic recording of diverse cellular events.