A single cell may possess enormous power to rejuvenate or injure an organism as shown by many stem cell and cancer studies. However, it is technically challenging to track single cells in an organism. Here, we have developed a new technology that labels individual cells with unique DNA barcodes and simultaneously tracks them in the same organism using next-generation sequencing.
To demonstrate this single cell tracking technology, we used it to track the development of individual hematopoietic (blood) stem cells in mice. We show how this technology is forty times cheaper and thousands of times more sensitive than conventional assays. We also show how this technology can provide new scientific information unattainable by previous assays. For example, our data provide the first evidence that individual hematopoietic stem cells do not equally contribute to blood production after irradiation and that they are regulated by at least two distinct modes in the same mouse.
This single cell tracking technology can be applied to almost all mammalian cells and will help us to better understand cellular behavior at the single cell level.