Nature Reviews Genetics

Charting single-cell lineages with synthetic and natural barcodes Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 27 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00943-5In this Review, Rodriguez-Fraticelli and Parreno discuss advances in single-cell lineage-tracing methods and how their application to diverse biological processes, such as development, ageing and cancer, is challenging prevailing views and providing new insights.

ICYMI: New online! Charting single-cell lineages with synthetic and natural barcodes

I will be attending the Keystone symposium on Nucleic Acid Therapeutics and Targeted Delivery. If you’re attending and would like to chat about @natrevgenet.nature.com, editorial careers or review ideas, please reach out — or just say hi if you spot me!
keysym.us/KSNATherapy26
#KSNATherapy26

Genomics of drug target prioritization for complex diseases - Nature Reviews Genetics In this Review, Chen et al. discuss how the advancement and integration of large-scale genetic resources, multi-omics data and sophisticated computational tools are improving drug development pipeline...

Genomics of drug target prioritization for complex diseases - a Nature Reviews Genetics review:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out our new review in Nature Reviews Genetics on de novo emerged genes and proteins. How they emerge, are lost and persist - and how de novo emerged proteins relate to randomized proteins! @bornberglab.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The genetic foundations of convergent traits Nature Reviews Genetics - Convergent phenotypic evolution, the independent acquisition of similar or nearly identical traits in multiple species, is widespread. Allard and Kumar explore the...

Our review article on the genetic foundations of convergent traits was published yesterday in Nature Reviews Genetics. It covers many cases of molecular convergence and the computational methods used to find them, including new AI-based methods. You can check it out here: rdcu.be/e1T8Q

Plant pattern recognition receptors: from evolutionary insight to engineering - Nature Reviews Genetics Genomic and pangenomic data are yielding insights into the evolution of plant pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and their molecular triggers. Recent advances in in silico and in vivo methods, along...

📄NEW PUBLICATION: Plant pattern recognition receptors: from evolutionary insight to engineering

Snoeck S, Johanndrees O, Nürnberger T, Zipfel C (2024)

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.tsl.ac.uk/publications...

ICYMI: New online! From DNA microarrays to somatic mosaicism in population cohorts

The regulation and function of post-transcriptional RNA splicing - Nature Reviews Genetics Post-transcriptional splicing has emerged as a key layer of gene expression regulation but is challenging to differentiate from co-transcriptional splicing. The authors review methodologies to detect ...

Review | The regulation and function of post-transcriptional RNA splicing www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Massively parallel reporter assays: from barcodes to biology Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 10 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00944-4In this Journal Club, Fumitaka Inoue discusses a 2009 paper by Patwardhan et al. that introduced a massively parallel saturation-mutagenesis assay that leverages high-throughput DNA synthesis and sequencing to quantify the effects of single-nucleotide changes on regulatory element activity.

FYI: New online! Massively parallel reporter assays: from barcodes to biology

New online! Epistasis and co-adaptation in bacterial genome evolution

In their Review, @alejofraticelli.bsky.social and Victoria Parreno describe the modern toolbox for single-cell lineage tracing, including synthetic lineage tracing as well as natural lineage tracing in humans by sequencing genomic and epigenomic variants, and its applications

These studies are leading to the re-evaluation of long-standing paradigms in development, ageing and cancer biology. They are also revealing the underpinnings of phenotypic heterogeneity across cellular functions, including regeneration and stress responses.

Advances in synthetic and natural barcoding methods now enable cellular ancestries to be reconstructed with unprecedented single-cell resolution. By quantifying and describing the heterogeneity in cellular dynamics and states, single-cell tracing technologies open new possibilities across fields.

Charting single-cell lineages with synthetic and natural barcodes - Nature Reviews Genetics In this Review, Rodriguez-Fraticelli and Parreno discuss advances in single-cell lineage-tracing methods and how their application to diverse biological processes, such as development, ageing and canc...

Charting single-cell lineages with synthetic and natural barcodes #Review by @alejofraticelli.bsky.social & Victoria Parreno go.nature.com/4b0xUyb
Free to read here: rdcu.be/e50gy

Charting single-cell lineages with synthetic and natural barcodes Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 27 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00943-5In this Review, Rodriguez-Fraticelli and Parreno discuss advances in single-cell lineage-tracing methods and how their application to diverse biological processes, such as development, ageing and cancer, is challenging prevailing views and providing new insights.

New online! Charting single-cell lineages with synthetic and natural barcodes

FYI: New online! Revisiting the blueprint for an interpretable virtual cell

Artificial intelligence-generated synthetic data for cancer research and clinical trials - Nature Reviews Cancer Synthetic data generated by generative artificial intelligence models can serve as a substitute for real patient data. In this Review, Eckardt et al. discuss how synthetic data sets can overcome barriers to data access and sharing, democratize scientific discovery in cancer research, and reduce the costs and failure rates of cancer clinical trials. They also discuss how this will only become possible if we can overcome the challenges of a lack of standardization in training data selection, model evaluation, bias mitigation, privacy preservation and quality assurance.

#REVIEW🚨
Eckhardt et al. highlight the potential of #generativeAI to generate synthetic data that can replace real patient data in cancer research, provided that issues like standardization, bias, privacy, and quality are tackled.
📖 👇

Novel strategies to manage CAR-T cell toxicity - Nature Reviews Drug Discovery Treatment with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies is associated with important immune-related adverse events. In this Review, the authors discuss the standard-of-care management for...

For readers interested in CAR-T cell therapies for cancer, here's a review on strategies to manage their toxicity nature.com/articles/s41...
rdcu.be/e5OQP

Evolutionary causes and consequences of gene duplication www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧬💻🧪 (🔓 rdcu.be/e4CYK)

FYI: New online! Navigating ethical, legal and social implications in genomic newborn screening

New online! From DNA microarrays to somatic mosaicism in population cohorts

Annotating genomes at increased scale and resolution Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00937-3In this Review, Ji et al. overview how rapidly advancing experimental and computational methods are enabling improved and automated annotation of gene structure and function, providing researchers with genome annotation resources of unprecedented scale and resolution.

ICYMI: New online! Annotating genomes at increased scale and resolution

A codon-resolved view of subcellular translation with LOCL-TL Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 17 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00946-2In this Tools of the Trade article, Jingchuan Luo discusses LOCL-TL (LOV domain-controlled ligase for translation localization), a method they helped develop to enable the study of subcellular translation at codon-level resolution.

ICYMI: New online! A codon-resolved view of subcellular translation with LOCL-TL

The genetic foundations of convergent traits Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 02 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00933-7Convergent phenotypic evolution, the independent acquisition of similar or nearly identical traits in multiple species, is widespread. Allard and Kumar explore the spectrum of molecular convergence in multicellular organisms, evaluate computational and artificial intelligence-based methods for detecting adaptive genetic convergence, and highlight how comparative genomics of convergent phenotypes informs complex trait evolution and human health.

FYI: New online! The genetic foundations of convergent traits

Bridging technical innovation and computational advances in studies of RNA–protein assemblies Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 16 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00931-9Empirical and artificial intelligence-based approaches are redefining how RNA-dependent protein assemblies are mapped, modelled and targeted, revealing their dynamic roles in health and disease and outlining closed-loop strategies for predictive functional RNA and ribonucleoprotein design.

ICYMI: New online! Bridging technical innovation and computational advances in studies of RNA–protein assemblies

Evolutionary causes and consequences of gene duplication Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 16 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00935-5Gene duplication is a key evolutionary mechanism, as initially redundant paralogues diverge over time. The authors review how adaptive and non-adaptive forces influence the evolutionary fates of gene duplicates, highlighting the importance of function–fitness relationships and gene expression dynamics.

ICYMI: New online! Evolutionary causes and consequences of gene duplication

Bridging behaviour and genomics for tsetse fly control Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 29 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00932-8In this Journal Club, Daniel Masiga recalls a 1986 publication by C. H. Green, which revealed how colour and odour cues influence tsetse fly (Glossina spp.) attraction, and a 2019 study by Attardo et al. on genomic insights across six Glossina species, advancing understanding of vector behaviour and control.

FYI: New online! Bridging behaviour and genomics for tsetse fly control

High-throughput identification of aptamer–target pairs with SPARK-seq Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 29 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00938-2In this Tools of the Trade article, Qin Wu discusses the development of SPARK-seq (single-cell perturbation-driven aptamer recognition and kinetics sequencing), a method that enables high-throughput identification of aptamer–target pairs.

FYI: New online! High-throughput identification of aptamer–target pairs with SPARK-seq

Redefining cellular reprogramming with advanced genomic technologies - Nature Reviews Genetics Morris discusses how single-cell genomics and computational tools expose failure points in reprogramming and guide protocols that improve the fidelity, maturity and purity of engineered cells, advanci...

Our featured article: Redefining cellular reprogramming with advanced genomic technologies by Samantha Morris go.nature.com/3MO0V8a
Free to read here: rdcu.be/eLxK7

4 cocktail glasses of different shapes and colours on a background of little tiles

📢 Our March issue is live!
go.nature.com/4cCPzhN
Reviews include: cellular reprogramming; AI for CRISPR-based genome editing; genomics of drug target prioritization for complex diseases; and the clinical utility of polygenic risk scores