Oligo-CALL: A next-generation barcoding platform for studying resistance to targeted therapy.

Overview

Understanding therapy resistance requires deconvolving heterogeneous cell populations and tracking clonal trajectories. While CRISPR-based cellular barcoding is powerful for lineage tracing, many platforms suffer from low efficiency and limited compatibility with single-cell transcriptomics. We developed Oligo-CALL (Oligonucleotide-inducible CRISPR transcriptional activator-Assisted Lineage Labeling), an advanced barcoding system enabling precise lineage tracing, live clone isolation, and seamless integration with single-cell RNA sequencing. Applied to lung cancer cells treated with a KRAS^G12C inhibitor, Oligo-CALL identified clones consistently enriched posttreatment, supporting a model of predestined resistance. Oligo-CALL achieved >95% efficiency in linking lineage identity to transcriptomes, uncovering diverse clone-specific pathways with underlying resistance. Paired analysis of barcode-matched clones from naïve and resistant populations revealed transient and fixed resistance phenotypes. Notably, DNA repair pathways are recurrently altered in resistant clones, and inhibition of poly(adenosine 5'-diphosphate-ribose) polymerase synergizes with KRAS G12C inhibition to overcome resistance. Together, Oligo-CALL provides a versatile platform for dissecting lineage evolution and molecular dynamics of targeted therapy resistance.