SPACE-seq integrates spatial transcriptomics and lineage tracing in native tissues.

Abstract

Understanding how cells change state, interact with their neighbors, and organize into tissues requires recording of cellular lineage history in native spatial context. Here, we present SPACE-seq (spatial tracing enabled by CRISPR-based barcodes and slide-seq), a versatile platform that integrates CRISPR-based lineage recording with spatial transcriptomics to jointly resolve lineage, cell state, and tissue architecture at near-cellular resolution in situ. Using SPACE-seq, we uncovered intratumor transcriptional diversification among clonally related cells and identified tumor-stroma crosstalk that reciprocally reshapes behaviors of both malignant and stromal populations, which we further experimentally validated. Beyond disease, SPACE-seq revealed a narrow developmental window in which hepatoblast dispersion contributes to spatially confined lineage compartments that prefigure liver lobar architecture. Together, these results highlight the broad applicability and adaptability of SPACE-seq to uncover previously inaccessible principles of cellular organization, lineage dynamics, and tissue patterning.