Project description:In vivo clonal analysis utilizing recombinase-activated fluorescence cell labeling has become an essential method for visualizing stem cell activities and cell lineage formation. Recently, the simultaneous acquisition of cell lineage information and single-cell transcriptome data has further advanced our understanding of clonal cell evolution during development, tissue homeostasis, and disease progression. Here we present a novel inducible cell lineage tracing system, called TiTracer, which simultaneously activates fluorescence cell labeling and cellular barcode generation by transiently expressing template independent terminal transferase (TdT) and I-SceI homing endonuclease. We applied this system in HEK293T cells and primary mouse keratinocytes and performed single-cell RNA-seq for barcode recovery and clonal reconstruction.
Project description:Herbal medicines have greatly contributed to human health worldwide for thousands of years. In particular, traditional Chinese medicine plays an essential role in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. With the exponentially increasing use and global attention to herbal medicinal products (HMPs), efficacy and safety have become major public concerns in many countries. In general, the quantification and qualification of quality markers (Q-markers) is the most common way to solve this issue. In the last few decades, small molecules, including flavonoids, terpenes, phenylpropanoids, alkaloids, phenols, and glycosides have been extensively investigated as Q-markers for HMP quality control. With the development of biotechnology in the last decade, scientists have begun to explore HMPs macromolecules, including polysaccharides and DNA, for their establishment as Q-markers. In recent years, supermolecules with stronger biological activities have been found in HMPs. In this review, we summarize and discuss the current Q-markers for HMP quality control; in particular, the possibility of using supermolecules as Q-markers based on structure and activity was discussed.
