Rapidly evolving homing CRISPR barcodes

We present here an approach for engineering evolving DNA barcodes in living cells. The methodology entails using a homing guide RNA (hgRNA) scaffold that directs the Cas9-hgRNA complex to target the DNA locus of the hgRNA itself. We show that this homing CRISPR-Cas9 system acts as an expressed genetic barcode that diversifies its sequence and that the rate of diversification can be controlled in cultured cells. We further evaluate these barcodes in cultured cell populations and show that they can record lineage history and and that their RNA can be assayed as single molecules in situ. This integrated approach will have wide ranging applications, such as in deep lineage tracing, cellular barcoding, molecular recording, dissecting cancer biology, and connectome mapping.