Cell lineage tracing is to track certain cell and all of its progeny. From the 20th century, lineage tracing has provided a predominant method to study organ development, tissue repairiaed cell fate-determination. Recently, the rapid development of technique for gene engineering, especially the application of Cre/loxp recombinase system expands the application range of lineage tracing. Here we discuss the application of lineage tracing technique in different studies, and summarize the characteristics and recent progresses of this technique.