How to build a mouse: embryo development captured in stunning detail
Two teams used gene-editing-based cellular recorders to reconstruct cell lineages during mouse development.
TL;DR
- Two independent teams reported gene-editing approaches for recording cell divisions during mouse embryo development. [1,2,3]
- One team reconstructed relationships among 1.3 million edited cells, about 10% of the embryo’s total, in a two-week-old embryo. [1,2]
- The methods are research tools for studying development; the reports do not describe a complete digital or artificial mouse. [1]
Nature reports that two teams published cell-lineage recording studies in Science and Cell, using prime-editing approaches to track developmental histories in mouse embryos. [1,2,3] [1] [2] [3]
In the Science study, the researchers reconstructed relationships among 1.3 million edited cells in a two-week-old embryo, which Nature reports as about 10% of the embryo’s total cells. The separate Cell study captured cell divisions as organs formed. [1,2,3] [1] [2] [3]
Why it matters
Cell-lineage recorders could help researchers investigate how mammalian tissues form from a single fertilized egg. The work improves a basic-research tool; it is not a clinical technology.
Editor's note
The coverage describes mouse embryo experiments; the reported methods should not be interpreted as human embryo research.