Human glioblastomas harbour a subpopulation of glioblastoma stem cells that drive
tumorigenesis. However, the origin of intratumoural functional heterogeneity between
glioblastoma cells remains poorly understood. Here we study the clonal evolution of
barcoded glioblastoma cells in an unbiased way following serial xenotransplantation to
define their individual fate behaviours. Independent of an evolving mutational signature, we
show that the growth of glioblastoma clones in vivo is consistent with a remarkably neutral …

Glioblastoma (GB) is the most aggressive primary brain cancer of adulthood, associated with
an average 5-year survival rate of 2%(1). A small population of tumor-initiating cells, termed
cancer stem cells (CSCs), are the putative origin of GB, accounting for tumor development,
progression and recurrence (2).There is a body of literature highlighting intra-tumoral
heterogeneity of the CSC population within GB (3-7), suggesting the presence of multiple
CSC phenotypes within the tumor. Whether these CSCs are derived from a single clone …