The lineage relationships of cells provide information about the origins of component cell types during development and repair as well as the source of aberrant cells during disease. Genetic approaches to lineage tracing applied in the mouse have revealed much about how the mammalian kidney forms, including the identification of key progenitors for the nephrons and stromal compartments. Inducible Cre systems have also facilitated lineage tracing studies in the postnatal animal that illustrate the changes in cellular fate that can occur during kidney injury. With the advent of single-cell transcriptional profiling and trajectory analyses, predictions of cellular relationships across development are now being made in model systems, such as the mouse, as well as in human fetal kidney. Importantly, these approaches provide predictions of lineage relationships rather than definitive evidence. Although genetic approaches to the study of lineage have not previously been possible in a human setting, the application of CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing of pluripotent stem cells is beginning to teach us about human lineage relationships.

细胞的谱系关系提供了有关发育和修复过程中成分细胞类型的起源以及疾病过程中异常细胞来源的信息。应用于小鼠的谱系追踪遗传方法揭示了哺乳动物肾脏是如何形成的，包括识别肾单位和​​基质区室的关键祖细胞。诱导型 Cre 系统还促进了出生后动物的谱系追踪研究，这些研究说明了肾损伤期间可能发生的细胞命运的变化。随着单细胞转录谱和轨迹分析的出现，现在正在模型系统（例如小鼠）以及人类胎儿肾脏中对发育过程中的细胞关系进行预测。重要的，这些方法提供了对血统关系的预测，而不是确定的证据。尽管以前无法在人类环境中使用遗传方法研究谱系，但 CRISPR-Cas9 基因编辑对多能干细胞的应用开始让我们了解人类谱系关系。