Spatial diversity of abundant and equipotent founder clones in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Introduction: In recent years there has been increasing focus on the extent to which intra-tumour heterogeneity influences the development and evolution of cancer. Although there is evidence that ALL samples consist of a genetically heterogeneous subclonal architecture, it is unclear how individual clones differ at the functional level. Methods: We used a cellular barcoding approach to label individual clones with heritable genetic markers and track their contribution to ALL development. Results: We demonstrate that xenografted ALL samples consist of high numbers of founder clones. These clones have similar func…