Control of lineage-specific gene expression by functionalized gRNA barcodes

Lineage tracking delivers essential quantitative insight into dynamic, probabilistic cellular processes, such as somatic tumor evolution and differentiation. Methods for high diversity lineage quantitation rely on sequencing the population of DNA barcodes. However, molecular analysis of specific individual lineages is not possible with this approach. To address this challenge, we developed a functionalized lineage tracing tool that enables high diversity lineage tracing and lineage-specific manipulation of gene expression. This modular platform utilizes expressed barcode gRNAs to both track cell lineages and direct lineage specific gene expression.